A Long Way from Home
by Sierra.BN312
Summary: After defeating Kaguya and absorbing her being, Naruto is flung straight into the Marvel universe and finds himself among the ranks of the X-Men, and bring change to the world. But for better or for worse is the question, as sometimes the past comes back to haunt us all.
1. Prologue: Goobye Home and Goodbye Team 7

_**Hello everyone, it's been too long since I even did a thing. College, work, and other personal things got in my way of doing a thing, and honestly, I think that I'm going to put my previous story on hold. However I was hit by an idea while reading through other stories, for inspiration and my own entertainment, I noticed a major lack of Naruto (my favorite manga and always will be) and X-Men (one of my favorite Marvel comic books) crossovers on the site that had actually put Naruto into the Marvel universe (Earth-616 to be precise; for those of you who don't know Marvel stuff, this Earth is the one where all the primary comics take place: Civil War, Secret Invasion, Siege, Fear Itself, Avengers vs X-Men, etc.). Also I do not own Naruto titles, characters, etc. or other related Shonen Jump products and rights, that honor belongs to the great Masashi Kishimoto. And I do not own any X-Men titles, characters, etc. or any other Marvel owned products and rights**_

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Opening Song: Silhouette by Kana-Boon - www. Youtube watch?v =LDDWf1vu9gA (Naruto: Shippuden)

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Prologue: Goodbye Team 7 and Goodbye Home

Infinite Tsukuyomi: It is close to activation; the whole world will soon be trapped, in a dream where there is no way to wake up except for one way, but would be too late save for a few people.

Madara Uchiha; he was already battered and badly wounded from fighting one opponent after the other: Might Guy had released the Eight Gates and had done some damage, but nothing he couldn't shake off. It was the brats Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha that had been the greatest threats to his plan: Uzumaki had gained the physical prowess of the original Sage of Six Paths, while the young Uchiha had obtained a single Rinnegan eye that had 6 tomoe within it like the Sharingan.

It was enough to see through all of his attacks and coordinate with the blonde boy to gain the upper hand and had done a considerable amount of damage before he managed to shake them off, but he managed to fly to the sky and rip off his forehead protector. Without it, one could see a closed third eye on his forehead and then, he formed a hand seal, "According to what was written on the stone monument, that when people possessing the power of Transmigration (the power of Ashura and Indra who both had become reincarnated throughout the ages continuing the brothers ancient feud) get close to the moon, the eye that can make the infinite dream come true, will open to reflect on it." Madara thought as his third eye began to open wide to show, the eye of the Ten-Tails.

"Illuminate the world…Infinite Tsukuyomi!" The moon began to shine on the eye in Madara's forehead.

The moon eye opens! The ground rumbles, the Shinobi Alliance was shocked and shouted many words. "What is this!?" Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage shouted as he floated in the air to avoid the large wooden statue that Madara summoned earlier and he saw again, the man fully covered with the skin of White Zetsu with but one hole in his body, "It finally started…I'm finished here…I don't need this filling anymore…" The man said as the cover around him began to disappear.

The ground shook again as the Alliance stumbled on the ground, "Again!" A random Shinobi shouted, "What!?" Ē, the Fourth Raikage shouted to a Kumo Shinobi, "At 4 O'clock! Meteorites!" The Shinobi shouted as he pointed to the large rocks falling out of the sky and a number of other Shinobi looked towards the same direction. "Damn! Prepare for the shock!" Darui, the First Division Commander ordered, "What's going on over there!? This isn't normal!" Chōji Akimichi exclaimed with Shikamaru Nara on his side.

"The chakra Naruto gave everybody vanished…that huge tree also disappeared." Shikamaru panted, "It's certain that something big is going on over there. Something not good, probably…" He continued as they watched the meteorites slam forcefully into the earth. "Woof! Woof!" Akamaru barked, gaining Kiba Inuzuka's attention, "WHAT!?" Kiba yelled, "What's happening Kiba!?" Shino Aburame questioned, "Shino, The moon! Look at the moon!" Shino did as Kiba said and saw it.

"Is this it…!?" Tsunade widened her eyes as she stood beside her sensei, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, "This is terrible!" Hiruzen shouted as they looked to the moon, the moon that reflected the Ten-Tails' eye.

-Team Seven's Position within the Night-

Meanwhile Sasuke Uchiha floated by using his winged Susano'o and stared at the moon. "This is bad!" Sasuke flew downwards at high speeds as he passed through the meteorites, destroying some of them on his way down, With Naruto Uzumaki, Kakashi Hatake and Sakura Haruno. "I'm gonna crush all the meteorites with my next attack, don't worry! Stay still next to me!" Naruto ordered as he prepared Six Tailed-Beast Bomb Rasenshurikens, "O-OK!" Sakura replied, "I gotta be careful not to hit Sasuke!"

Naruto thought as he threw his Jutsu to the meteorites and Sasuke evaded them from the sky and it hit the six meteorites, creating six large explosions that made them look like 6 shining suns. "Sasuke, don't come down all of a sudden! The Rasenshuriken will hit you to-…" Naruto stopped as Sasuke landed on the ground,*BOOM* "Hey! Don't be so loud when you land!" Naruto shouted at Sasuke, who was still inside his Susanoo, "Shut up and don't move!" Sasuke shouted to him.

-The Alliance-

"KYAH!" A large scroll rolled along the ground as Tenten crashed into the scroll was opened a bit and pictures of two of the Treasured Tools of the Six Paths could barely be seen on it, "With these Ninja tools, I could seal the enemy in an instant! But I need to ask someone from the Cloud Village how to use them…!" She thought but before she could pick up the scroll, the ground shook again.

-Madara Uchiha-

"We, the world, will finally become one!" The mad man exclaimed victoriously as the moon had shown a silhouette of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki which meant only one thing: The Eye of the Moon Plan was being influenced by her.

-The Alliance-

The moon shone as bright as the sun and as its rays touched the ground the light made is seem as though a heavenly being was descending from Heaven, Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage stared at Sai, he noticed that Sai was staring at the moon and Sai remained still until he saw his eyes that reflected a pair Rinnegan, "…." Sai was now in a hypnotic state staring at the moon as the rest of the world began to follow suit. Orochimaru and his group were the same; they were all staring at the moon that had become a look alike of the sun in terms of brightness, and a pair of Rinnegan had appeared in their eyes. "Hey! What happened!?" Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage stood as he shouted to the group, he then looked up at the sky, "That eye has Madara's Jutsu already begun!?" He shouted, Killer Bee appeared from a tentacle and he too began staring at the Sun-Moon, just like the rest of the alliance.

-Daimyo's Hideout castle-

Mah-jong pieces and poker cards is scattered on the ground as the door to the Five Daimyo's room was slammed opened. "My lords, we're in trouble!" A servant shouted as he saw the Daimyo's are still asleep. The Daimyo's began to stir and rub their eyes as they had finally awakened. "…What? We're tired, we didn't sleep last night…" The Fire Daimyo rubbed his eyes. "Hm…?" The Wind Daimyo asked. "Weren't you sleeping just now!? Anyways! That's not important! Something terrible is going on…! It should be night but it's like daytime…" The servant shouted but stopped as his eyes changed into a pair of Rinnegan at the same time as the five Daimyo's. In every corner of the world, the moon shone into the land as all the people, even animals were enthralled by the moon and their eyes also changed into a pair of Rinnegan.

-With Madara and the Alliance-

"This light can shine even through the shadows…you cannot hide…and…" He formed some unknown hand seals and said: "Shin: Jukai Kōtan (God: Nativity of a World of Trees)." All of the Alliance were under the Ultimate Genjutsu and just stood there as Madara manipulated the roots of the Shinju, spreading them around the entire world to encase those caught within the Genjutsu. The Alliance was encased in the cocoon from the roots and this kept going on but Hiruzen wasn't caught on it and just tried to remove his student from the cocoon. "What's happening!?" Hinata Hyuga was just looking at the sun with her last thought before being completely encased: "Naruto…"

-Team Seven-

Naruto widened his eyes as the place they were standing was covered by Sasuke's Susanoo. "Naruto, not now!" Sasuke grabbed Naruto's shoulder.

The whole place where they were standing was completely blocking out the light as the Black Zetsu stood outside. "Hm? That Susanoo is blocking the light? Is his Rinnegan able to repel this jutsu too?" He wondered. "If that's the case they will present a real problem"

-Back inside Sasuke's Susanoo-

"Don't go outside now. Without the Susanoo I created with my eyes, you'll be affected by his Genjutsu too!" Sasuke released his hands from Naruto's shoulder. "His shadows are also outside…if they kill the two of us, everything's over. Wait for a chance." Sasuke told them. "What…!"

-Outside with Hashirama and Tobirama-

Hashirama looked behind him and saw Sai being completely covered by the cocoon. "This is Jukai Kōtan! He's tying up people using the vital energy of the holy tree…?", "Why haven't we been affected?" Tobirama wandered as he walked through the cocoons. The man who was covered with White Zetsu's skin is also have a pair of Rinnegan and his cover is being removed and it shown the…Former Team Seven Captain Yamato. "Yamato…" Hiruzen muttered as Yamato was captured by the tree.

-With Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage-

He slowly opened his eyes and saw he was laying on a rock with his cloak removed and both of his hands are cut off. "Hn…Uhh…" He widened his eyes to see large roots with cocoon attached to them and saw he was in the Leaf Village and it was completely empty as the people were trapped inside the Genjutsu. "What is this...what's going on!?" The whole world is trapped inside the 'dream'. Every Hidden Village and cities around the world fell under the Genjutsu and the whole world is near its end.

-Team Seven-

"What's going on outside now? Sasuke." Sakura asked her former crush. "Why do you need to know? There's nothing you can do now." Sasuke harshly answered. Sakura closed her eyes while Naruto hardened his features. "Sasuke…that's not the issue. Naruto and I want to know that too. Sakura also wants to think about a possible way to…" Kakashi was stopped by the disrespectful Uchiha. "Kakashi…You're the same as Sakura now. Shut up…I'm directing here." Sasuke was back on his arrogant self as Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "Sasuke, you asshole! We need to work together!" Naruto shouted to his former teammate.

"No, he's right, there's nothing I can do now. With your left eye, you're able to analyze what's happening outside, then it's true that you should be the one taking control of Team 7." Kakashi stated. "EEH!? I don't think he could come up with a better strategy than Kakashi-sensei or Sakura! Though he might be better than me." Naruto was back to his idiotic self. "Anyway, Madara started his jutsu. It's an extremely powerful Genjutsu…All of the people outside have probably been affected by it. We might be the only ones safe." Sasuke explained. "Infinite Tsukuyomi…" Kakashi mumbled. "That means everyone…" Naruto soon began to realize what was transpiring outside. "Is inside a dream." As Sasuke bluntly put. On the outside, it was utterly silent; no sound was made; only the bright moon was shining upon the earth.

-Inside the Infinite Tsukuyomi-

Hinata's dream…

She was leaning on Naruto's shoulder in a park while Neji Hyuga and Hanabi Hyuga are silently stalking them.

Kiba's dream…

He was sitting on the Hokage's chair while wearing the Hokage robe and hat while he was petting a drooling Akamaru. "First of all we should decide a dog day and make it a holiday…HOKAGE'S ORDER!"

Shino's dream…

"I finally found a new species…" Shino was a riding a very large insect and they were flying high in the sky.

Chōji's dream…

"UWAAAHH! Looks delicious!" Chōji is being fed by his girlfriend who likes people who eat a lot. "I love people who eat a lot, they're so manly!" His imaginary girlfriend exclaimed. "You found someone for you too…" Chōza Akamichi, his father and the head of the Akamichi Clan is smirking on the background.

Shikamaru's dream…

"Marrying someone looks too troublesome…I'll just give up…" He said as he watched Kurenai Yuhi and Asuma Sarutobi with their child and Shikaku Nara and Yoshino Nara arguing. "Yeah…" Temari replied on his side.

Ino Yamanaka's dream…

"Ino is my woman, go away." Sasuke stated. "Please stop fighting-." Ino tried to plead. "No, she's mine." Sai stated as well. "My girl is so popular." Inoichi Yamanaka is smirking on the background.

Rock Lee's dream…

"Youth Won!" Lee victoriously shouted after defeating Naruto and Neji who was laying on the ground. "I love you, Lee!" Sakura is being a fangirl to Lee.

Tenten's dream…

"Adult's should act cool, Lee." Might Guy who was wearing a normal Leaf Jōnin uniform without the green spandex and has a cool hairstyle said. "That's right." Lee was wearing the same attire as he replied. "I don't have to comment anymore." A smiling Tenten on the background look on the two. "Are you sure that doesn't need a comment?" Neji looked unsure on the two. "Eh, not as much as before." Teneten agreed a little bit.

Mei Terumi, the Fifth Mizukage's dream…

She is being married happily to a handsome man with the five Kages as guests.

Tsunade's Dream…

Dan Katō is alive and became the Hokage while Tsunade is walking beside him until she shouted. "Nawaki, wanna do something awesome? Don't tell your sister." Jiraiya is whispering to Nawaki Senju, Tsunade's younger brother as he is lending him an adult book while Orochimaru glanced at Tsunade who shouted at them. "HEY! JIRAIYA!"

Gaara's Dream…

His whole family including his mother who is alive and his father who acknowledges him as a son is having some fun together. The second scene shows Gaara was doing something until Yashamaru, his caretaker called him. "Gaara...your friend is here." He said to the young child. Gaara look behind him to see a young Naruto running to him. "Yo! What game do we play today?" An excited Naruto asked him. "Don't be late Gaara." His father told him. "Ok." Gaara answered.

-Team Seven-

"When can we go back!?" Naruto shouted. "People fall into the Genjutsu due to moonlight...That light is slowly diminishing...But we can't go out as it shines." Sasuke explained.

-Outside with the Moon-

The light coming from the moon that it made it look like the sun is slowly diminishing until it became the moon again. Sasuke's Susanoo is standing up while the dead Obito Uchiha who's body was taken control by the Black Zetsu. "So it really wasn't letting light through…damn" Black Zetsu said. The Susanoo slowly vanished and the Team Seven jumped to the ground. "It looks like that Black Guy isn't affected!" Naruto shouted. "Finally…" Sasuke muttered. "Sasuke, How can we wake everyone up!?" Naruto shouted. "A Genjutsu created with a Rinnegan can probably be cancelled by another Rinnegan…" Sasuke explained. "So we need you left eye…" Kakashi understood. "I won't let you do that...you're the only ones left to get rid of." The Black Zetsu said. Then all of a sudden a loud boom was heard in front of them with dust kicking up in it's wake.

"No! I am the Savior of this world, I will do it." Madara landed back to the ground. "MADARA!" Naruto shouted. "The eye on his forehead…!" Sakura gasped. "Be careful...we're surrounded by his shadows on 4 sides." Sasuke warned. "I know!" Naruto answered. "I won't let you do anything else." Madara tapped the ground.

"I just stopped the fate of this world. I freed people from pain suffering, emptiness." Madara stated. Naruto gritted his teeth. "This is just...A HUGE FUCKING LIE!" Naruto shouted. "Naruto...You're getting in the way of everyone's happiness. Our game ends here. I turned Hell into Heaven . You should understand...It's all over." Madara stared at Naruto. Soon everyone was absolutely shocked for what had come next as Black Zetsu mad a move that surprised them.

"No Madara...You're not the savior...and it's not over...rather it's far from it actually." Black Zetsu stabbed him in the chest. "I can't move!" Madara was confounded as to what happened and still trying to wrap his head around it. Team Seven widened their eyes. "Why do you think that, unlike Obito, you can use everyone else? Isn't it presumptuous to think that only you are different? You really are an arrogant one indeed." Zetsu continued his talk. "Madara."

"Black Zetsu...what are you saying!?" Madara managed to speak out trying to resist letting out any noise of pain, showing his weakness even within his newfound power. "I'm the one who created you…! YOU'RE MY WILL!" Madara raspily shouted out. "That's not true either...My will is…"

"Kaguya." "EH? What's going on!?" Naruto exclaimed. "Are they splitting now!?" Kakashi shouted.

"No...Not really. He just said 'Kaguya'…" Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "What is Kaguya?" Sakura was confused. "HM!? KAGUYA!?" Naruto shouted. "The one the Sage of Six Paths...Hagoromo, was talking about." Sasuke narrowed his eyes. _"He came close to me using the Ten-Tails' power...and now he is even trying obtain the power of my mother Kaguya. My mother's power created conceit...and the people had begun to fear it."_ Naruto remembered Hagoromo's words about his mother. "Does it mean that…?" Naruto widened his eyes. "GWOOOOOAHH!" A violent betrayal, Madara Uchiha screamed, not in victory but in pain and agony.

"What's going on!? His chakra is unbelievable!" Naruto shouted as they saw Madara's shadows vanished. "All his shadows just vanished! Something's about to happen!" Sasuke shouted.

'BOOOOM!' The ground shook and exploded, the rocks floated and the Team Seven became worried. "It's Chakra!" Sasuke shouted. All of Team Seven soon were flung into the air for a bit before they regained their posture. Chakra as Sasuke said, exploded behind them and they flew while Madara is undergoing some unknown transformation.

"The Chakra that came out of the ground...is being absorbed…?" Kakashi asked himself as he landed on the ground gracefully. "Where does, all this Chakra come from? It's so dense…" Sakura landed back on the ground, ungracefully. "It probably comes from the people controlled by the Infinite Tsukuyomi!" Sasuke answered. "GYAAAH!" Madara continued shouting. "This is bad, Sasuke! It's even more chakra than the Ten-Tails!" Naruto landed on the ground as he observed Madara. "Kill him before he moves! Go Naruto!" Sasuke prepared a Chidōri and aimed it to Madara. "So we have to kill him while he's inflated!" Naruto pointed his staff to Madara while he prepared to haul his Truth-Seeking Balls at Madara.

The chakra became visible in the air as it is being absorb into Madara as the man is inflating because of the gargantuan amount of chakra being absorb into him. Naruto dashed to Madara so that he can attack him in close range while Sasuke coated his sword with his lightning and charged as well. "Two bugs flying into fire...I'll suck your chakra too." Black Zetsu said. "SHIT!" Naruto shouted as him and Sasuke were grabbed by the chakra that flying to Madara. Sakura was about to help the two until… "Wait Sakura!" Kakashi stood to block her way to the two. She was surprised and caught off guard by Kakashi's interruption. "It's useless without a clear strategy."

"I can't move!" Naruto tried to squirm but failed. "Sasuke! If we don't beat him…all the others will die after having all their chakra absorbed! Shit!" Naruto looked at his teammate. "GH!" Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Don't worry...I won't kill them...Kaguya once used this Infinite Tsukuyomi on people, but she kept them alive." Black Zetsu rose from the ground. "To create her soldiers…" "Create? What do you mean!?" Sasuke demanded. "Heh...seems that you're not smart as Itachi...do you think a normal person can be used in battle?" Black Zetsu said as he detached himself from Obito slowly. Everyone was confused by his response.

"Do you…" Kakashi was about to ask something but he was stopped. "They'll be turned into White Zetsu's. It's how people become after being caught inside Infinite Tsukuyomi, That's White Zetsu. They change slowly, over time." Black Zetsu explained. "Then! Will everyone become like that!?" Naruto demanded as they Madara continues to inflate.

"HEY! He's getting huge!" Naruto shouted to Sasuke. "He's swelling because he can't stand the absorption of all that chakra! He's going to burst!" Sasuke shouted as Madara continue to inflate but suddenly it stopped and Black Zetsu was completely detached from Obito who fall to the ground while they can no longer see Madara but the black figure is shrinking down. "He shrunk down…!?" Sakura exclaimed. Obito's body crashed to the ground. "Obito!" Kakashi shouted.

"UGH!" Naruto widened his eyes as the former Madara had become a silhouette of a woman and when they looked closer, they saw the eye of Ten-Tails opened on its forehead. A woman came out, who in possession of very delicate facial features, she also had long, sweeping white colored hair that touched the ground. Most noticeably were two horn-like protrusions which stuck out from her head. She also had Byakugan, and also had a third eye on the centre of her forehead that eyelids parted vertically. Her eyebrows were cut very short – a symbol of nobility. And she wore a dark hade of lipstick on her lips and a dark shade of nail polish on her long fingernails. She wore the transitional high-collared hime-kimono which was adored with intricate lines and magatama running down the centre and edges of the gown. Naruto and Sasuke widened their eyes in shock. Sakura and Kakashi is shock as well. "She's...the one the old man was talking about…" Naruto said in shock while still his eyes are widened. "Kaguya Ōtsutsuki." Sasuke muttered.

Suddenly, her hair stretched then grabbed Naruto and Sasuke and threw them to the ground. "UGH!" Naruto and Sasuke crashed to the ground and skidded through the rocks.

"Naruto! Sasuke!" Sakura shouted until Kaguya walked past her, shocking her that she didn't even notice within a split-second. "Those two are definitely fine...More importantly, Sakura…" Kakashi thought. "Don't be rash now…!" Sweat dropped on Kakashi face as he look on the new arrival. "These two must be Hagoromo and Hamura's…" Kaguya's eyes activated the Byakugan. "No...Indra and Ashura?" Kaguya observed their Chakra network with her Byakugan.

"So it's Hagoromo who gave you those techniques." She deduced quickly as she looked on their Network. "Sasuke! Naruto! You're fine!" Sakura looked on the two. "Who is she? Why did Madara suddenly turn into that..?" Sakura observed Kaguya. "This Chakra...it's on a whole different level than Madara. How can someone like this exist?" Sasuke thought as he sensed Kaguya's chakra.

"Obito." Kakashi glanced behind him to look on Obito's body. Kakashi observed Kaguya. "What is your goal!?" Kakashi demanded. "This place, this ground is my nursery. I cannot let you damage it anymore. Let's stop fighting." Kaguya floated again. "EH?" Naruto was confused.

"Then…" Naruto said. "Here." Kaguya said as she looked on the two. "I'll have you vanish right now." She summoned another dimension and they didn't not felt it as they suddenly lost the ground they were standing just to see that they are falling into a river of Lava.

"NOO!" Sakura was caught off guard as she thought she was caught in a very powerful Genjutsu. They were falling into the heat, Obito, Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke continues to drop into the lava. "That's…!" Sakura exclaimed. "Is that lava!? A Genjutsu!? No, this feeling, it's real!" Kakashi widened his eyes. "Summoning Jutsu!" Sasuke summoned a large hawk to catch him. "Sasuke! There!" Naruto called to him but he was grabbed by the hawk as Sasuke rode into it. "What are you doing? Not me!"

"Pheew" Kakashi managed to tie a scroll into a kunai and then it became their rope. Naruto opened his mouth as he saw the kunai stabbed into the rock while Obito's body was managed to be save by Kakashi by throwing a kunai into his palms sticking him to the rock.

"How did he!?" Naruto exclaimed. "Kakashi tied a scroll to the Kunai...and used it as a rope. Obito is only being kept there by the kunai though…" Sasuke explained. "Obito...sorry for that…" Kakashi though while Sakura's forehead protector slipped from her head. "AH!" Her forehead protector fell into the lava, incinerating it. "Yeah, just like I thought, it's not Genjutsu. Did she pull us into another dimension?" Kakashi thought as he looked on Naruto and Sasuke who was on the hawk.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're great!" Naruto happily exclaimed. "Look in front of you, Naruto!" Sasuke called Naruto as the said person looked on his front. "I'll be blunt with you." Sasuke started.

"If either of us dies, this world ends. Your Yang power…" Naruto looked on his palms where the Sun tattoo is imprinted. "...And my Yin power...can seal her." Sasuke showed his palm with Moon tattoo to Naruto. "If we can't do it, humanity will be annihilated. We must not die, no matter what. During the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Kakashi and Sakura just happened to be next to you. That's all." Naruto widened his eyes in realisation. "Do you understand?" Sasuke clarified. Sakura panted in exhaustion. "I do…" With that statement, Sakura realized that in their current position that they were essentially useless to Naruto &amp; Sasuke.

"I understand what you're saying...But in times like this...my body just moves on its own." Naruto stated. Sasuke remembered their first mission back in the Land of Waves when he took Senbon Needles launched by Haku, originally meant for Naruto. _"Why...Why did you do that..? Why for me..? I don't need that." Sasuke remembered what happened back at the bridge._ _"A-As if I know...My body just, moved on it's own...Idiot…!" He remembered that part where he said the exact words that Naruto just said._

"Oh well…" Naruto smirked. "I'm sure you know what I mean...Sasuke." Sasuke kept silent. "It's as Sasuke says. But...thank you…Naruto." Flames started to cut off the scroll and Kakashi saw it.

"Crap!" The scroll was cut off and they began to fall. Sakura screamed in terror. "SHIT" Naruto used his Chakra claws to grabbed Kakashi while Kaguya activated her Byakugan again and made some of her hair to become needles and send to them as Naruto managed to grab his teammates seeing the first opportune moment to end the only threats to her plans.

Sasuke activated his partial Susanoo to cover them from the needles but the hawk was hit by the needles. "Byakugan…! Damn! She caught the hawk's vital points!" Sasuke looked on the hawks wings. Naruto cried out in fear as they fall faster to the lava. "I'll have to use Susanoo!" Sasuke thought.

-The Battlefield-

"Madara's chakra rods are vanishing…" Hashirama thought as he finally stood up. "Finally I can move...now I'll…" Tobirama managed to get up and moving again, "If I reach the place this huge chakra is coming from...I might be able to understand something..!" Tobirama thought as he ran through the rocks. "But his chakra suddenly disappeared…" Hiruzen is jumping underneath the large roots.

"It vanished...Did they defeat Madara!?" Minato sat on a rock. "Ugh...I have to get back to Naruto…"

-Team Seven Vs. Kaguya-

Kakashi was looking on the Lava below him, he felt something grabbed on him. "Naruto...You!?" "EH?"

They saw that Naruto grabbed Kakashi, the hawk and Sasuke while Naruto floated. "Hm? AH!" Naruto saw that he was floating. "Can you float!?" Kakashi exclaimed. "Now that I think about it...Madara was floating too after getting the Sage's chakra…" Kakashi glanced at Naruto. Naruto suddenly smirked and created a Shadow Clone.

Kaguya observed what was happening to the Team Seven and she remembered a younger Hagoromo with the Sun tattoo on his palm. "Take care of Sakura and Kakashi-sensei." Naruto commanded his Kage Bunshin. "All chakra belongs to me." Kaguya's face darkened as she looked on Naruto and Sasuke. "GH!" Sasuke pulled a needle on his arm as his Susanoo is being completed while Naruto floated on his side facing Kaguya.

"I will make all chakra mine once again!" Kaguya shouted as she charge to Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto widened his eyes. Their techniques clashed as Kaguya used the power of her Byakugan and Naruto used his Chakra claws to deflect it, creating a large gusts of wind.

"WOOOAHHH!" They continued their barrage of punches suddenly Kaguya smirked as she managed to land a hit to Naruto and flew back. "Sasuke! Now!" Sasuke's Full Susanoo flew down to Kaguya and… 'BOOM!' Sasuke flew back and his Susanoo was removed.

The others covered their eyes from the explosion. "SASUKE! Shit! I can't stop!" Naruto is still rotating uncontrollably away. He saw Sasuke's sheath fall down to the lava while Sasuke himself is falling down as well.

"UGHH!" Naruto went into Sasuke's front to stop his fall but he didn't as Sasuke fell but he managed to grabbed Naruto's foot. "!? Sasuke!" "Not even Susanoo works…" Sasuke explained. "Let's get Obito now!" The Clone Naruto is still using his chakra claws to hold Kakashi and Sakura as he also grabbed Obito from the rock while the real Naruto used a Truth-Seeking Ball to make a platform for Sasuke to stand up.

"I forgot you could use that Body Flicker thing. I got worried!" Naruto told Sasuke. Sasuke landed on the platform. "Like this foothold, it's because we were both blessed with Sage's power...but if we don't seal her, this is all meaningless." Sasuke explained as they look to see Kaguya gone in front of them.

A black portal slowly and quietly opened behind them and Kaguya came out to touched Naruto and Sasuke's chin. They turned around but Kaguya got hold of their chin and they saw she was crying. Kaguya has tears flowing from her white eyes as she remembered her sons Hagoromo and Hamura Ōtsutsuki. "I can't move…" Naruto thought as they were stuck on their position.

Two black liquids came out of her sleeves and covered the half of Naruto and Sasuke's body. "She's...taking our chakra Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as Sasuke had his mouth open in shock. "...Looking at you, Kaguya….was reminded of her two sons." The Black liquid form black Zetsu. Naruto widened his visible eye. "Isn't it sweet..? Kaguya was sealed by her own sons. What a poor mother." Black Zetsu stated.

"Why did the Sage seal his mother!? Didn't he seal the Ten-Tails!?" Naruto asked. "I think you're misunderstanding something…" Black Zetsu answered. "…Black Zetsu, who are you!?" Sasuke demanded. "I'm Kaguya's will." Black Zetsu answered. "What…!? His voice, changed!?" Sasuke thought. "I recorded everything while my mother was away, and I created a story. The Story of Shinobi...was created for my mother's resurrection." Black Zetsu stated. "What are you saying? What do you mean!?" It was confusing for Naruto because he can't understand. "If you know my mother's name...you must have met Hagoromo. Depending on the reincarnated's power, it's possible to meet him. And to receive the power to seal my mother."

"What!? We want to seal the Ten-Tails!" Naruto shouted. "It's uncommon to see Indra and Ashura's reincarnation's cooperate so much. Since you don't seem to know anything, I'll tell you that story while absorbing your chakra." Black Zetsu paused. "...As I told you earlier…my mother was sealed by her sons. It was a very powerful seal. The Ten-Tails itself was turned into the core of Chibaku Tensei...and that's how it became the moon. But right before the sealing, I was created. So that my mother could one day, be revived." They all listened as Kaguya still have tears from her eyes.

"I'll show you. I have no candies, but I can show you pictures." Black Zetsu continued speaking. "First, the Ten-Tails...It wasn't just the Holy Tree. My mother was part of it too." Black Zetsu showed them a picture of the Ten-Tails in rampage. "It wasn't the incarnation of the Holy Tree that was trying to take back it's chakra fruit. It was my mother's will; that was trying to take back the chakra...that was shared between her two sons." Black Zetsu then showed a picture of a young Hagoromo and Hamura Ōtsutsuki with the Shinju on the side. Naruto widened his eyes. "Not even Hagoromo knows about this. He doesn't even know that I was preparing my mother's return." Black Zetsu stated.

"Hagoromo, who didn't know anything...was raising Indra and Ashura, and even created something Stupid as Ninshū" Black Zetsu then showed a picture where Hagoromo is training the young Indra and Ashura. "However, I could use all of that power for my mother's revival. When Indra lost in the war for the leadership of Ninshū I tempted him…" A picture of an older Ashura after the war with Black Zetsu behind him. "...And then, I decided that his descendants, the Uchiha Clan, would be the cast for my story. I also partly fixed the rubbish written by Hagoromo." A picture of the Clan Crest of the Uchiha was shown.

"Then!" Sasuke's visible eye widened in realization. "Yes...the stone monument left by Hagoromo. I changed its text. I wrote that the Infinite Tsukuyomi is what would save the Uchiha." The next picture showed the Stone Tablet of the Uchiha. "With just that, you acted the story out perfectly...you Uchiha's." A group of Uchiha Warriors was shown next.

"Indra and the Uchiha...Ashura and the Senju...they fought each other for power...even after that, I kept on approaching the reincarnations of each clan...and I tried to have them awaken the Rinnegan, but it always failed." Next was the Crest of the Senju and Uchiha with the Rinnegan on the background. "But when Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju became the reincarnations...I was certain." The picture then showed the picture of Madara and Hashirama with their respective clan warriors facing together. "...that Madara could do it." Next was the face off in the Valley of the End where Madara bit off Hashirama in the arm. "And that it'd be the first step in my mother's revival."

"However, Madara Uchiha lost to Hashirama Senju…" The next picture was the aftermath of their battle when the valley was formed and then when Hashirama took Madara's body while Black Zetsu is watching on above.

"For Shinobi, Madara's corpse was like a treasure box. Tobirama, who was studying the Sharingan...decided not to dispose the body...and hid it deep in the forests of the Leaf." The next picture was located in the spot where Tobirama hid the body and the Black Zetsu who went to the underground laboratory where Madara's body lay rest. "With Mangekyou Sharingan, you can create techniques that would be activated after a certain time." Next was the close up of Madara's face. "It's the same as when Itachi left Amaterasu in your eye, Sasuke. Madara had put Izanagi into his right eye." Next was Madara who awakened but lost his right eye to Izanagi. "Sacrificing his right eye, he rewrote reality and was resurrected...he used a Shadow Clone in place of his body." The picture then showed Madara standing with his Shadow Clone standing beside him.

"He threw up the piece of Hashirama's meat he had bitten off...and implanted it into his wounds…" He then showed when Madara threw up the piece of meat he had bitten off. "With that, he was finally able to awaken the Rinnegan and summon the Gedō Statue. Further, he cultivated Madara's meat with the Statue...and tried to live even longer." The next picture shown the Statue with the Old Madara. "The accidental results of that were the White Zetsu...but it fact, they were the people once trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, that I simply took out of the Statue." The he showed was the White Zetsu's that was taken out of the Statue. "'Two opposing things can create all things when working together'. As written on the Stone Monument, Madara strengthened his attachment to Hashirama." The Stone Monument was shown again.

"I devoted myself to the Uchiha. Making it sound like Madara came up with it...I started the Akatsuki, A project to collect the Tailed Beast's and lead them to war." He then showed where Madara integrated Black Zetsu into the White while talking to Obito. "And to increase our battle power, I purposely had Kabuto discover Madara's corpse." The next picture was showing a smiling Kabuto. "Further, I led him to use Madara's corpse as a card...to invite Obito to collaborate." Next was Obito talking to Kabuto before the war began. "Finally, as according to my plan, the Infinite Tsukuyomi was activated...and by collecting the chakra spread among this place...my mother could be revived." Black Zetsu concluded as Kaguya still has her tears but she said nothing.

"I...Hate you. Hagoromo...Hamura...you're mine." Her face suddenly darkened with her Byakugan activated. "My role is over. We must go back to our mother, the almighty god." Black Zetsu is being absorbed by Kaguya. Naruto widened his eyes. "The only, you're not the only…" Naruto gritted his teeth.

"You're not the only ones who created the History of Shinobi!" Naruto managed to detached himself forcefully from Black Zetsu. Kaguya widened her eyes a bit. Soon, Naruto used his claws to grab Black Zetsu from Sasuke. "And also!" "And also! A mother should be happy when her sons become independent!" Naruto managed to remove Black Zetsu from Sasuke. "You're too rebellious...my mother is the progenitor of all chakra. You brats can't do a thing." That was Black Zetsu's final words as he was completely absorbed by Kaguya. "We'll have to create an opening to use the sealing jutsu, Naruto." Sasuke said. "Yeah! We'll have to us that. That technique!" The counterattack will begin as they decided

What followed was Naruto quickly whispering his new plan to Sasuke which actually managed to make him break his "broody battle" face. "You actually managed to do that and created what?!" He whispered back in disbelief. Naruto cheekily smiled back. "You come up with anything better? No way is she going to let us get close and she could always just slip through dimensions before we even get the chance."

Sasuke just stared at him blankly before looking down, closing his eyes, and sighing in defeat. "Kami..." He looked back at him. "You do realize if this works, people are gonna be talking about it for years, right? Naruto simply smirked. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Hn,fine then." he grunted before looking back at Kaguya. "Ready?" He asked with a side glance. Naruto looked back and gave him a firm nod as they both got ready for action. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but mother has absorbed every known jutsu. Anything you try is simply pointless and stupid." Black Zetsu creepily said within the shadows of Kaguya's open sleeve. "Amaterasu!" Sasuke suddenly yelled and Kaguya immediately erupted in jet-black flames that would normally incinerate a human being, but the Rabbit Goddess was slowly snuffing them out.

During this however, Naruto was already on the move. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He yelled while putting his fingers in a familiar cross sign. Eight clones suddenly surrounded her just as she extinguished the flames harmlessly off her body and was preparing to strike back.

Now what happened next was well, like Sasuke hinted at and Naruto happily understood, something so unpredictable and completely insane that potential shinobi and kunoichi for centuries will be baffled by their teachers when they explain the defeat of Kaguya Otsutsuki, the creator of chakra and possibly the most powerful being in existence. "Sexy Reverse Harem Jutsu!" Suddenly all the clones transformed into naked...attractive...men? Everyone except Sasuke, and yes, even Kaguya, were completely shocked and frozen where they stood. Off in the distance with Kakashi, a Naruto clone, and an unconscious Obito, Sakura who had a trail of blood escaping her nostrils, was mentally berating Naruto's new jutsu. 'Have you gone completely insane AND STUPID?! What the hell kind of jutsu are you using at a time like this?! I mean...granted I'm a completely different story, but do you really think that jutsu is going to work on a god like that-'

Before she could finish her thought Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and they both disappeared in a flash of yellow and reappeared on both sides of Kaguya with their Yin and Yang covered palms grabbing hold of each shoulder all thanks to the special seal he applied on Black Zetsu when he pushed him away before returning to Kaguya's side.

Naruto learned the Flying Raijin Jutsu during the training trip that he finally understood that what he knew wasn't enough and begged Pervy Sage repeatedly to teach him all he could before he finally gave in after he kept interrupting his 'research'; this of course included Sealing Jutsu. It took practically the entire trip, a shitload of memory-receiving shadow clones, and a whole lot of patience before Jiraiya let Naruto take a crack at the legendary teleportation jutsu created by the Second Hokage and later used by the Fourth Hokage. This was also after the reveal of his parents and Jiraiya being his godfather. Of course Naruto was shell-shocked and emotionally vulnerable, but nothing a good, long crying session and a swift kick to his discovered godfather's private parts couldn't fix, Kami rest that man's perverted soul.

"That actually worked?!" Sakura yelled. The Rabbit Goddess couldn't react in time before the symbols on their hands glowed a bright white while Kaguya and Black Zetsu became immobile much like they made Naruto and Sasuke earlier. She was shaking as her power visibly left her body in white see-threw streams that shook around those in contact with her. Her eyes and lip-sticked mouth were facing the volcanic ceiling as she let out a silent scream. All she could do was shakily glance from Sasuke then Naruto.

These boys who were the reincarnations of her own flesh and blood, her grandchildren, had defeated her nearly within an instance. If she could chuckle right now, she would. The deja vu was immense. The denial and reluctant acceptance of her failure, she felt absolutely vulnerable and powerless, while falling prey to this godlike power not that dissimilar from her own.

'Just like so long ago.' She thought depressingly as her chakra was being drained out of her at a faster rate and the escaping energy grew bigger and brighter. A loud, whistling wind formed in the air rustling their hair and clothing; large pieces of rock splashing in the lava around them.

It seemed history was doomed to repeat itself. However, since she was that history, perhaps in this case she had to learn from her little 'mistake.' She abruptly thought as everything seemed to slow down around her; her hearing slowly fading as if she were dazed. Was she wrong? Was power really all that mattered to her in the end? Was this plan doomed from the start just like before? Who was she to determine mankind's fate?

She glanced again to the two increasingly glowing men. 'What a pathetic waste of a return, I haven't even been alive for an hour yet.' She lazily thought. She suddenly felt the last strings of her chakra about to be drained and was only able to garner the will to whisper one last sentence: "I was a horrible mother." Both Sasuke and Naruto slightly lifted their illuminated eyes in acknowledgement of her words. But only Naruto was able to see the tear's escape the corner of her eyes as she closed them in knowing that odds are, she would never be able to roam freely about the dimensions once again.

Before he could think on her words, pillars of light erupted from small cracks in her formerly flawless skin. Naruto and Sasuke were forced to shut their eyes from the brightness, while Sasuke appeared to be alright, Naruto on the other hand began to feel the chakra being sealed within himself. It was almost unbearable! The sudden godlike power surging into his body was like he overate and felt like he was about to throw up! His clothes started to rip and tear in places here and there, with chakra burns beginning to form around his body. It seems as though even with his new powers gifted to him by the Sage, Kaguya's chakra was still almost too much to handle. He felt like his body was going to burst.

The surrounding area started to shake as if an earthquake was occurring. Kakashi, Sakura, and the Naruto clone looked around in worry not exactly sure what to do. They had no choice, but to wait for Sasuke and the original Naruto to be finish the sealing process. It's not like they could exactly move around that well, Sasuke was still blinded by the light while Naruto had to endure the painful process; as soon as the sealing began, they felt like their chakra was being drained. Perhaps it was because of Kaguya's power manifesting in the air. They did see chakra flow out of the earth and into the inflating Madara before becoming Kaguya after all. This was quickly goingfrom bad to worse though as they saw the Naruto clone struggling to keep afloat and keeping a grip on their bodies. The pain of the original began to flow towards the clone with a painful expression forming on his face.

'Please hurry you two, we don't have much time anymore.' Sakura thought.

As Naruto continued the struggling process of absorbing her chakra, a dimensional hole appeared near them and before they knew it, a seemingly infinite amount of holes in the dimensional opened around them. They appeared in the air, on walls, and even on the pools of lava. However, instead of the normal pitch black holes they saw Kaguya travel through, they were fuzzy images flickering in a montage of colors. They all seemed to release a sound of static and what seemed like voices.

That's when everyone, even the distracted Naruto and Sasuke, looked around in astonishment as they witnessed nearly every new reality play a small, blurry 'film' of sorts with the tiniest hint of sounds within them. There were casual conversations, whispering, yelling, sounds of fighting, and even the laughter of people. No words could describe what they were seeing right now.

That's when Kaguya's body reached her limit as she was completely enveloped in the white light. From the center of her body, to the outside edge's of it, she began to dissolve in glittery pieces.

As her glowing head joined the white streams of energy around Naruto, he felt more pressure being put onto him. He was holding his ground as best he could while feeling his chakra coils began to expand and empower him in a searing pain. He'd never felt like this before! It was like years of training and knowledge were being forcibly shoved into his minds and his entire being remolded like taking recoil from a vast amount of clones after an entire months wroth of training! He also detected rapid emotions passing through them: anger, hate, bitterness, hurt, and regret regret; those last two weren't from the sacrificed Madara or the obliterated Black Zetsu, then whose emotions are these? A huge pulse of power suddenly exploded outward between Naruto and Sasuke as the last of the chakra was sealed. They were launched in opposite directions as Naruto landed roughly on a conveniently placed platform of rock while Sasuke slammed into a wall, but quickly stuck to it using his chakra.

The dimensional tears suddenly began disappearing and reappearing in random spots around them all. It was happening so fast and was hard to follow, but they were more worried about the rapidly deteriorating volcananic dimension. They didn't have much time and scarcely looked for a way back home. As if Kami was giving them a way out, a tear that lead back home appeared right next to Sasuke with a clear view of the battlefield they were in before with the Edo Tensei Hokage's. "Guys, over here!" Sasuke yelled. The Naruto clone was sweating and panting profusely, feeling his original's pain, but did his best to ignore it, had acted fast and used his last bits of chakra to throw Kakashi, Sakura, and Obito towards their way back to the Elemental Nations before dispelling. Despite Sakura's screams of surprise, the throw was spot on and they quickly disappeared through the hole; all the while barely missing the other tears appearing around them.

Sasuke was about to go next, although rather very slowly due to exhaustion and over extending himself, when he saw Naruto struggling to move from his position looking at Sasuke with half lidded eyes, with tears of blood, and rapidly changing eye colors of blue, red, and a greyish purple. "Shit! Naruto!" Sasuke screamed. "Get your ass moving you idiot or I swear to Kami I'll burn down Ichiraku's!" That seemed to get a small reaction out of him as Naruto barely rose to all fours with raspy breaths while shaking at the limbs. "Got t-to g-get up." He whispered to himself with his vision becoming hazy and his hearing starting to mute out the surrounding sound.

Then without warning a new dimensional tear had formed right beneath him. Their eyes widened as Naruto sank into the hole as if in slow motion. He could do nothing but shakily reach his hands towards Sasuke whom had jumped to try and take his hand to rescue his friend, before blackness took over his sight and heard "NARUTO!" in an echo. Then he started falling into the dark abyss, and eventually the light that was where he entered from, began to fade and disappear completely. He was lost floating in the darkness for what seemed like an eternity, light had begun to show and soon it began to grow brighter, and brighter, it had eventually blinded his sight, and he felt wind rushing across his body and then nothing as hit something akin to concrete.

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Closing Song: Life is Like a Boat by Rie Fu (Bleach; yeah I know not Naruto specific, but I liked it as it conveyed Rukia's loneliness in the World of the Living during the first arc of Bleach similar as to how Naruto will begin to feel in the Marvel universe) - www. youtube watch?v= 7tFfDMvwxpc

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_**Authors Notes:**_

_**I**__** know many of you guys were hoping to see Naruto get into the Marvel universe right away, but please be patient, I'm still getting it together and I have a pretty good idea as to when I want to introduce him into the timeline during the Decimation event. **_

_**Now some of you are wondering if I'll be pairing him up or not. The answer for now is yes. That could or could not change as the story progresses though. I have already decided on two choices: Hope Summers, the Mutant Messiah or Lil' Jean Grey, the Alpha Mutant (All-New X-Men teenage Jean Grey; as far as the whole "Alpha Mutant" title goes, I saw it on comicvine as it said that she could very well be considered the most powerful mutant in history, but it could be wrong); now I'm still undecided as to who of the two I shall pair him with if I even decide to do **__**so**__**. Only time will tell once I get to the **__**point and depending on who has won the poll.**__**Now**__** other people will be wondering with the way the story will be going is why not X-23, Laura Kinney, as a choice. The answer is that I've already seen it done in other works. I like her character **__**but **__**I'd rather keep them as close friends similar to how she and Mercury are in the comics, **__**though**__** I will have Naruto written into the X-Force comics. **_

_**THERE WILL BE NO HAREM WHATSOEVER, THIS IS FINAL SO DO NOT EVEN ASK ME TO TURN IT INTO ONE. It's not that I have anything completely against them, it's just the way I am when dealing with Marvel as it is a more realistic universe despite other fanfic crossovers in the same category; Harems can be done if written extremely well and done between other manga's and anime's, but in my opinions not Marvel (or DC) comic books. **_

_**But do leave reviews and follow this story, as I will try my best to update it as soon as possible, no flames as they will be deleted.**_

**Also one ****VERY**** big note: If anyone wants to help me co-write this story I will gladly accept but I do ask that you have these requirements: **

**1) Extensive knowledge of the Naruto manga world and lore**

**2) Extensive knowledge of Marvel X-Men comics, Earth-616 (mainstream Marvel world) and it's lore within these time periods.**

**3) A Microsoft account with a OneDrive account access as I use it to keep track of my work and documents, so we can share ou****r**** work and changes to the story.**

**If anyone is interested, please PM me over fanfiction and I will send you my email so that we can co****operate.**** Follow, Review, and Enjoy everyone :)**


	2. Chapter 1: A Brave New World

_**Wow. I honestly did not expect to see so many people already following, favoring, and reviewing this in such a positive way in such a short amount of time. Seriously, I thought people were gonna bash this thing, but I was mistaken. This is the chapter where I finally introduce Naruto into the **__**Marvel universe**__**, and no need to worry everyone, Naruto is not nerfed. I intend for him to hold back for a bit, but I will give him new jutsu to master as the story progresses. Make sure to head to my profile to vote on the poll to pair him up with, I'll still leave it open for a while, make sure to actually check out their profiles to get a good idea of who would be a better choice, after all Naruto did say that he would find a girl to love just like his mom. Anyway, on to the first chapter of Naruto's new story in his life! I own nothing, if I did, I would be filthy stinking rich and would make this story cannon! Lolololololol**_

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Chapter 1: A Brave New World

Naruto's eyes opened up finally after being out for so long. He groggily got up out of the bed and noticed that he was in a hospital of sorts judging from the white walls and the décor of the room. 'Fantastic' He thought. He hated hospitals, as fast as he could heal, he felt like it was a waste of his time after missions, especially now that he had half of the Sage's chakra and it kept him going beyond his original limits with Kurama's aid.

But after absorbing Kaguya herself he was momentarily weakened and was struggling to stay awake and use what little strength he had to get back home, but a tear in the dimensional veil had all but possibly denied him that. Maybe he did get back home, but he landed in one the minor Elemental Nations like the Land of Spring or Tea perhaps? Please let it be Spring, he really wanted to see Koyuki again! He wanted to get that autographed picture done right, and it sucked looking like he got his ass handed to him. But he didn't mind getting that kiss from her…maybe he could get another one?

"Oh, you're awake."

He turned around to hear a voice, but not in a language he recognized. It was a nurse who had worn what would probably be considered the standard for whatever hospital he was in. He tried to see if he could sense any chakra around him, but to no avail there was none! Not that his senses were shot, but rather they were working perfectly like before, so what the hell was going on!

"_I'm sorry could you repeat that please ma'am?" _**(AN: He's currently speaking Japanese since it is the only language in his universe for obvious reasons) **He wasn't sure if she could understand what he said, hopefully she would.

"_Oh! You speak only Japanese? I'm sorry, we didn't know that, you don't look like you're from Japan. We didn't expect you to wake up after an additional three weeks when we found you outside the hospital yesterday. You had several lacerations on your body along with first to second degree burns, and you had a major concussion on your left hemisphere_** (AN: I'm honestly not trying to be specific here in medical stuff, he practically heals within an instant now)**_. Your clothes on the other hand were torn up in several areas but we managed to salvage some of it. We also put the rest of your belongings and a spare set of clothes that the hospital paid for you in the closet next to you, don't worry, we didn't open your pouches due to patient privacy and whatnot."_ Thank Kami…he was worried that he might actually have to go find a person at random to translate for him along with money and new clothes, he was not looking forward to learning a new language overnight from someone, and with his attention span…well...you get the picture.

"_Ok….uhm…I know that this is gonna sound like a really strange question…but, where am I?" _He needed to know where he was exactly, hopefully he could find a way back home if _that_ was even possible.

"_That is a weird question actually. You're in New York State Hospital."_ She smiled politely, but caught his raised eyebrow and look of confusion as if he had no idea what she just grew two heads…it was weird and cute of him to say the least, but she kept those thoughts to herself. It was also a little strange how he spoke Japanese so fluently, and yet he didn't even look the least bit from the country rather from the west, even so…

"_Oh, ok then, thanks for the info…is there any chance that I can speak to a doctor anytime soon to see when I can leave?"_

"_Of course. I need to head back anyway to let them know you just woke up, plus with the rest of the medical exam results should be ready by now, you probably won't have to wait very long."_ The nurse then walked out of the room leaving Naruto to his thoughts and privacy.

'Fan-fucking-tastic….' As he thought, he needed to get dressed, get out of here, and find any and all ways even _remotely_ possible of getting back home alive. But he needed to check some thing's first, He walked over to the closet, while ignoring the stinging sensation in his eyes, and got out the clothes that the hospital had for him: a simple black t-shirt with a white star in the middle surrounded by 3 red &amp; blue circles along with a pair of grey cargo pants. 'Clearly these people don't understand the badassery of the color orange.' He thought. They weren't really his style, but they'd have to do for now. There was also a pair of socks with his shinobi shoes 'Glad these survived at least. I can make more clothes later with my Yin-Yang Style when I'm alone. Don't wanna attract any attention to myself, in the meantime…'

Before he continued those thoughts, he ventured into his mindscape where Kurama and the rest of the Tailed Beasts resided within him after receiving the rest of their chakra essence's from Obito to fight Madara. Even though Madara had captured them all with the Gedo Statue, they could still meet within his consciousness, combining that with the chakra left from Obito, meant that over time they would be restored to their former selves with new bodies. It was now an open field with rolling hills and scattered trees under a starry night sky instead of the dark and gloomy looking sewer from before, it must've changed when he met the Sage since he hadn't been in there for a while. He needed to know if they were alright, so he called out each of their names: Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokou, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuki, and Kurama. But only Kurama had arrived as he was before, the others were in the state as when the Sage of Six Paths first created them an like children in a sense; it must've been a side effect of absorbing Kaguya or something of the like. Either way, they were alright and that's what mattered to him.

"Hey guys, how's everything going?" Expecting to hear a multitude of voices responding, instead only Kurama spoke for them and himself (well in a sarcastic sense for himself really), **"Well other than being trapped in an idiot like you, and having to now live with my dysfunctional family….and now a psychopathic freak of nature…everything's alright!"** Naruto huffed in annoyance, while the others grumbled a bit, Naruto was about to respond first to the 'idiot' jab, but the 'psycho' is what really got his attention though. "WHA! Hey furball! I'm not a…wait you said something 'bout a psycho? What gives?" He instantly got a response in the form of Kurama's finger pointing off into the distance behind Naruto.

What he saw was an old style castle built into a mountain side with several cherry blossom trees growing out of the mountain, and some even out of the building, blooming and reflecting the bright moonlight. It looked like it was out of an artistic masterpiece, in a sense he admired it. He finally understood what Kurama had meant, and realized it: he was now the host to Kaguya Otsutsuki, the Rabbit Goddess herself! Holy shit! Wait he should've known that, why was he surprised? But if she was here, then why hadn't she tried to possess and take over his body yet? Were those last emotions that he felt before falling into the tear hers? It was the only thing that made sense.

He had to speak with her and hear what exactly she had to say about her last moments before being sealed away in him, and not the moon like before with her sons when she was the Ten-Tails and where he was to be precise since she goes through dimensions on the fly with ease, but his thoughts were interrupted by Kurama, **"I know what you're thinking. Yes, she is here, no she hasn't taken over your body, and no you can't talk to her right now, nor do I even think you should attempt such a stupid ass thing. If anything she isn't taking you over and devouring us is because she is in a deep sleep, though don't expect her stay like that for long. She'll want a way out and she'll take every chance she can get to convincing you to do so. And then the Infinite Tsukuyomi starts all over again."**

Naruto was confused. Didn't Kurama also sense those emotions when he did too? Either way, he got some answers, "Ok fine then, but I will talk to her eventually though." Kurama gave him a disapproving look for a bit, then went back to his usual demeanor…although Naruto sometimes couldn't really tell the difference being who he is…anyway. "So buddy, any idea where we are exactly? Since _she_ really can't give me a direct answer right at the moment, how 'bout you?" He was hopeful, but then depressed the next, **"Like I know where we are. Oh wait! Just let me pull up my dimensional travel guide and start looking alphabetically starting with the A's or should I start with the Z's? Your pick."** Naruto immediately frowned at the grinning fox for the remark. Hey, just because he liked the kid doesn't mean he can't tease him from time to time and laugh his ass off. **"My siblings are like this most likely due to the blowback of power when you and the Uchiha brat sealed her away and you absorbed her being, and it took the most out of them since they weren't bound to you since birth unlike me." **

So that's why they were like this. Or at least the main theory, he'd ponder more on that later. "So can I still draw on ya'lls power like before when I went up against Madara, even when you guys are like this?" Kurama placed his hand underneath his chin and had a bored expression on his face. **"Don't be stupid, of course you can, but it will slow down their regrowth as the trade-off, though now with **_**her**_** in you now, I wouldn't be surprised if you got a few new jutsu's up your sleeve. As far as healing you goes, I can keep you going, but once the rest of my siblings regain their power, you'll practically regenerate limbs and wounds within an instant, combining that with your already extended life force, and that rabbit's chakra….hm."** Kurama paused for a moment as if he was contemplating as to whether or not to break the news to the kid looking a little worried as to how he would take it. "What? What?!" Naruto was already in suspense for what he was going to tell him, but then he stopped and became nervous after looking at his friend's face. **"With your longevity already super charged by our chakra, you would've lived probably past at least a good century or two, but now after receiving half the old man's chakra and all of his mother's…you've got a whole lot of time now…like almost immortal time…"** He was really hoping Naruto would take this a little well, but there was a long silence for a while until Naruto opened up his mouth and said only two words: "Fuck me…" He knew Kurama and the others didn't have a problem living forever, but he sure as hell did! He didn't want to live past all of his friends and loved ones, who would want a life like that!

"**Hey kid, odds are there's bound to be someone out there in the same crap your in."** Somehow he doubted it (boy how wrong he would be in the future), he tried to comfort the kid, but he knew it wouldn't do much. "I honestly shouldn't even be surprised considering all the shit we've been through, should I?" **"Nope."** "Thought so…well I better get my stuff outside and check out this place while I still got some time to myself." Kurama raised an eyebrow at the last thing he said in confusion. "I mean after all the troublesome crap we tend to get into almost every day, we hardly have anytime to ourselves." Naruto responded. **"You mean **_**you**_** get into crap almost every day, don't go lumping us in with your stupidity."** "Oi!" **"Hahahaha!"** Kurama and the others laughed to their hearts content, while Naruto just looked off to the side and huffed in annoyance. Looks like they were doing well for now, even in their current states.

Naruto exited his mindscape and decided to gather and take inventory of what he had, hopefully everything was still where it was supposed to be. He dumbed all of the contents onto the bed and separated everything by weapons and scrolls: 30 standard Kunai, 50 standard shuriken, 20 Flying Raijin kunai (he would make a note to create more of them when he had the time with his Yin-Yang style). He still had Zabuza's Executioner Blade that Kakashi–sensei had given to him when he confiscated it off the Edo Tensei swordsman. A pair of Chakra blades that he had won a bet off of with Asuma-sensei. They weren't his as Shikamaru held them, but he had mad abet with Asuma if he could master the Wind Style in a week, then he would place an order for a new pair of blades like his own, too, bad for the Jonin's wallet getting hit so suddenly after Choji dug into a major barbecue special one day. And finally Madara's old Gunbai War Fan, Naruto had picked it after the newly revived Uchiha ditched it when he became the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, and saved it for later thinking that he could use it like Temari did with her fan. Not only that, the damn thing was near indestructible, seeing as how it could repel a Mini-Tailed Beast Bomb, he could also use it in conjunction with the Executioner's Blade, maybe he could attach the weapons together and use them similar to how Madara had done when he fought Hashirama when they created the Valley of the End.

His scrolls had colors assigned to them so he could tell the difference between them and not get confused every time he dug through his stuff. Red for medical supplies, yellow for books to pass the time and training manuals. He even had a few of Pervy Sage's smut books and the original Tale of the Gutsy Ninja., maybe he could sell them and make some money off whoever would enjoy the books. And orange for spare clothes and food (mostly instant ramen). He looked to see that his headband was still intact, thank Kami, even though he could just create a new one, he didn't want to discard the very thing that Iruka-sensei had given to him to graduate from the academy, it meant the world to him, and it was symbol of his heritage and culture. He unsealed a white and red scroll that he marked it with two colors to stand out from the others. It contained his dad's old Hokage trench jacket and vest, he received them from Jiraiya during their three year trip after learning about his heritage. He slid the vest and jacket on, tied on his headband, gathered the rest of his belongings and was getting ready to leave until a man in what looked like a lab coat and glasses along with the nurse from before. He assumed that this was the good doctor coming to release him from the hospital.

-The Sanctum: Home of Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, and member of the New Avengers-

He felt a massive surge of energy just a few hours ago, but just as quickly as it came, it had just vanished. It was strange to say the least (no pun intended), but it felt dark, god-like, and also warm and kind for whatever reason. He needed to locate the source and quick, before anyone else could use it for their own purposes, doubtless that others had more than likely felt the shift of energy. Some allies, others not…

He then began his search back at the source from hours ago to find that it came from a hospital nearby. He asked the doctors if they had anything interesting happen within the last few hours and they told him that a severely injured patient had woke up three weeks early after being treated for his injuries and then left 25 minutes ago. After gaining the identity of the boy, 'Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze' and his description, he immediately decided to wipe away any evidence that the boy was here in an effort to hopefully cut off his trail from possible enemies. Afterwards he then started to search for the boy's signature to try and locate him, luckily he didn't have to wait very long, within an hour he felt the surge of energy again this time. It wasn't as strong as before, but just enough to feel that the boy was engaging someone, hopefully he wouldn't do much harm to whoever was unlucky enough to fight him.

By the time he arrived, they boy was standing over 5 masked people armed with several makeshift melee weapons, some groaning, others unconscious. The boy then turned around to see him, and then noticed something different about him. From what the doctors had said he had bright blue eyes, but instead here, they were a grayish purple with it darkened a bit in the center and had a ripple like pattern across the iris' and sclera with 3 tomoe on the inner ring…

-With Naruto-

After managing to bullshit his way out of the hospital, thank Kami that his luck also extended to that including gambling; he saw that the technology in the hospital was decades ahead of what he remembered from the stuff from the Leaf's hospital, but he ignored the glare from one of the nurses who looked like she had a bone to pick with him and called him a 'Mutie'. What the hell was a mutie? He was pondering this as soon as he stepped outside the hospital and his eyes looked like they were about to bulge out and his jaw had dropped as far as it could...'Where the hell am I?!' He saw towers that were the size of the Tailed Beasts that looked far more refined than the ones from the Hidden Rain Village, sure they were tall also, but they looked like they were just thrown together out of necessity, but these looked like pieces of art, and that they were built to perfection.

He began to walk almost aimlessly around the massive city of lights, he noticed that he was being followed by a few shady looking people with hoods and beanie's over their heads with a few hidden weapons in their coats. He knew they didn't have any chakra, and odds are, crap Taijutsu, if they even have that here. So he decided to turn down an alley to deal with them, he then just waited for them come at him, while they began to surround him, one of 'em began throwing out what sounded like racial slurs with an angry look on his face, others were smiling sadistically.

Apparently that nurse that called him a 'mutie' had informed these guys somehow what he was. The stinging in his eyes began to intensify as the thugs began their assault. After all was said and done, the thugs were down on the ground either groaning in pain from the bones being broken or just flat out unconscious, one of them had completely lost his arm as Naruto threw one into the other and was too caught up into the moment to even notice, but the stinging in his eyes finally died down as the last one went down. He had held back for their sake, at least for 4 of them the other that had lost his arm had passed out of shock and blood loss. He went to use his Creation of All Things technique to regrow the arm with success. He eventually saw what happened to his eyes in a nearby broken mirror, they changed drastically from his ocean blue to ripple purple. "Rinnegan..." He said with both awe and astonishment. This had to have been a new ability from absorbing Kaguya, but she didn't have Rinnegan, only...Madara...of course he was used as a sacrifice for her, he had the Rinnegan, so it had to of come from him in a way, but the tomoe were new, almost like Sasuke's Rinnegan. But just as he was about to make his way out of the alleyway, a man in a cape had appeared behind him.

* * *

After about half an hour later of explanations from both people. Strange had seen and heard many things with his time as being Sorcerer Supreme, but this boy's story was something else entirely. It was a life of many hardships and astonishment, he had literally transcended from man to god. In a way he reminded him of the late X-Man Jean Grey, albeit more clumsy and blunt, but at times he could be just as caring and determined like her if not more so of the latter two traits.

It only took about 10 minutes or so to help him become more vocal and literate in English to ensure he could better interact with people, and so he had talked to him in the newly learned language about the state of the world and such. As he told the boy about recent events he quickly became more interested in the mutant subject; he made them in comparison to the people of his reality who have "blood-line traits" or kekkei-genkai in his people's world as such he too was one of them in a sense. With that, Strange decided that perhaps the best place for him to stay for the time being until he could find a way back to his home would be the Xavier Institute. Naruto could sympathize with mutant kind; they've been persecuted and disowned just like was back in the Leaf Village.

Stephen then had teleported them several miles away out to Westchester, New York (but not before having the thugs' memories of the event of getting the asses handed to him wiped) once they arrived they then walked the nest few minutes to the school now surrounded by Sentinels as big as Gamabunta, whether to guard or keep the mutants inside was what Naruto wanted know, seeing as how much humanity hated mutant kind just for existing. He felt compelled to try and do something about the situation, but as the doc said, trying to reverse the event that decimated mutant kind is something beyond even him, and if _the_ magic man says that…well…'nuff said, sometimes you have to make do with what you got and stick with it.

As soon as they walked up the front door, it opened to reveal two people standing in the doorway: a man in a black jumpsuit with some type of red colored visor with no nose bridge, alongside him was a blonde haired woman in a white somewhat revealing outfit; the both of them looked rather fatigued, no thanks to what was going on due to M-Day.

"Scott, Emma."

"Stephen." They said in unison. They glanced at the blonde haired boy with strange eyes standing next to him, they immediately noticed the strange eyes that he had and the headband wrapped around his forehead. "Please, come in." Scott motioned for them to come in, while Emma was trying to dig through the boys mind, but to no avail, to which she found both odd and extremely irritating, she could see that he had no exterior implants to prevent any mind reading, that much she was certain of. It was almost as if something else was blocking her out, a different entity. She doubted that it was Strange blocking her with a spell, unless he had a good reason for it, so what was it?

Naruto took several mental notes of the school and the people within it as they continued walking. He saw one student made up of what looked like rocks along with one who looked reptilian, he was then suddenly reminded of Kisame Hoshigaki for a bit. Though there wasn't anything really the scored a five or higher on his "Holy Shit-meter", he had seen enough strange crap throughout his life to the point where nothing really shocked or wierded him out...well, save for finding out that he was stuck in a highly technological advanced dimension. He was getting a little nervous due to the lack of talking between them, so he decided to break the ice...so to speak, "So...uhm Mr. and Ms.-"

"He is Scott Summers, and I am Emma Frost. Headmaster and Mistress of the Xavier Institute." The now known woman had introduced them before he could even finish his sentence. She didn't sound rude or arrogant, but it came off as such. They continued walking through the halls of the high class looking school until they reached a set of double doors and the four of them stepped inside.

-The New Mutants &amp; the Hellions-

"Yo dudes, looks like we got a new recruit today." The giant golem student known as Santo had said with multiple heads turning around to face him.

"You're kidding..." The one called Surge, had spoken out of annoyance as if someone was replacing a student who lost their powers on M-Day, her boyfriend David to be specific.

"What do you mean, Santo?" A redhead covered in organic metal called Cessily, had actually responded with a question instead.

"Mister Summers and Miss Frost took some old looking dude in a cape and blonde kid with weird looking eyes and a cool looking jacket into Summers' office."

"Wonder whose team he'll get put into..?" Julian mused intentionally to get a rise out of someone, primarily Noriko, whom had just crushed her drink can while gritting her teeth in anger. David had put his hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down with some success.

Many of the students who had lost their powers were no doubt going to be sent home, and with the thought of the new guy replacing someone left a bad impression already of the new guy. They all had worked so hard to become a team and to know each other's strengths, weaknesses and develop their team tactics. Having to start over with this new guy was something no one was looking forward too.

"Maybe we oughta give the new guy a chance, it's the least we can do." Jay Guthrie, the pacifist of the New Mutants had suggested not to try and isolate the possible new student. Everyone else remained silent at the table afterwards and went about their business.

-With Naruto, Dr. Strange, Cyclops, &amp; Emma Frost-

"…and that's about it. Anything else ya'll want to know?" Naruto had told the two senior X-Men about his life and how he ended up here, but chose to let a few details and such since some things weren't very important. He wasn't too sure what to think of them, but he didn't want to give them any reason to distrust him so he would have to go along with whatever decision they made. From what the Doc had told him about the X-Men, they were good people at heart and wanted peace between both humans and mutants, and laid their lives down on the line, even for the people that hated and distrusted mutants. It was something he could relate to.

Emma was the first to speak up. "Actually yes, when you and Stephen first appeared, I was able to sense your minds, but I couldn't read yours at all, why is that?"

"Wait a sec. You're a telepath?" Emma gave a nod answering him 'So she's like Ino and the Yamanaka clan.' He thought to himself. He looked down and zoned out for a few seconds to talk with the Tailed Beasts to see if they had anything to do with blocking her telepathy.

"Hey, are you guys blocking her telepathy?"

A single word was given in unison. **"Yes." **Kurama had spoken to give their reasons. **"We weren't sure if people should know about us, given the nature of humans. That and from what Strange had told you about the human maggots experimenting on the mutants and using them as weapons in comparison to what the villages back home did to us."** He couldn't blame them for being too cautious, they just got out of the weapon system, and no way in hell were they ever going back to being used as such.

"Ooooh, ok then. Thanks. But I may need you guys to let them in my head, if they ask. I'd rather not keep secrets from these people if I want them to trust me more." They looked a little hesitant and looked at one another for confirmation, and finally nodded a yes to him ending his daze.

When he looked back up at the adults, they looked at him with eyebrows raised in suspicion and confusion. "Hm? Oh, sorry about that, I was just asking my friends to drop their little mental protection for you guys; case you wanted to see a few of my memories to get a first-hand look at my life if you doubted a few things."

"Friends?" The headmaster asked with a little curiosity.

"Yeah, the tailed beasts I told you about. They currently live inside me, and I can converse with them in and out of my mindscape, and draw on their power and abilities." Scott was remembering what he had told them, if anything he was reminded of Jean when it came to powerful entities within hosts; human and mutant alike. The night he was born, the man named Obito had attempted to kill him, his parents, and destroy his home by ripping a powerful demon from his mother while he was still in her womb and in the process nearly killing her. His father, the 'Fourth Hokage' as he was called the youngest leader of his village, had sealed half of the creature in himself and then in his son before he died. He was forced to bear the brunt of the villager's anger and hatred that night from then onward alone with no one to support or guide him, something he could sympathize being an orphan when his parents were abducted by the Shi'ar that night he and his brother Alex had jumped from the plane to safety.

Naruto soon gained their acceptance through his hard work, determination, and heroism when the man Nagato, his cousin, had all but nearly flattened it, and defeated him with not just his fists where everyone else in the village had failed, but his words as well, prompting Nagato to bring back the lives of all that he had killed in the village in exchange for his life on his own free will. He had nothing but respect for the kid if anything else. He looked at Emma for a bit, they didn't share any words or a telepathic conversation to understand one another.

"Alright then, we'd like to see for ourselves what you had told us, just so there isn't anything missing." Emma had said. She was curious to know more about the boy's home and its inhabitants even more so, what better way than to see it through his eyes and memories. That and she wanted to ensure that he and the demons inside him wouldn't be a threat to the students, since yesterday, their safety was her primary concern, and she wouldn't allow anyone or anything to do them harm. "No problem." Naruto had responded in his usual casual tone.

-Naruto's Mindscape-

As soon as he said those words he and the two X-Men were in his mindscape, but instead of it being night like the last time, it was now broad daylight. The three of them stood on top of a hill looking out around the forested area.

"I'm impressed. Most people don't have this great a degree of control of their minds structure." Emma complimented. And she truly was, most of the time she simply saw little rooms with panels of memories, there wasn't any challenge in navigating minds like those.

Soon they found themselves surrounded by the Tailed Beasts staring down on them in the forested area. Scott and Emma were both wide eyed and their jaws were only slightly opened as if they were about to speak.

"Hey everyone, these are the people I told ya'll about." As he looked up at the tailed beasts, then turning his attention back to the headmasters. "Don't worry, they won't attack you or anything like that, they're actually pretty friendly once you get to know them a bit." And in truth they were, but the years of being sold off to other villages and sealed into various human hosts and used as weapons had made them bitter and distrustful to humanity.

**"Hmph. They don't seem very strong." **Kurama decided to test their nerves so to speak, to see what kind of reaction he could get out of them for his own little entertainment. Sad to say there wasn't much of one...damn, oh well.

"You're not exactly the first being to underestimate us." Scott had rebuked.

**"I can imagine so there shades." **Kurama had spoken with a toothy grin revealing his teeth to the teachers.

"Lay off 'em furball, they're friends." Kurama had gritted his teeth in annoyance while his siblings had a little chuckle for themselves. He hated that damn nickname the brat had given him, but he'd always get one up on him every now and then. "Now, before I let ya'll see anything, there is one place that is completely off limits to you two, as you'll see why soon." He pointed back towards the mountain side castle that held the sleeping God, with the adults turning their heads around to see the extravagant structure. They were awed by its beauty and that something like this could be constructed in the mind. They sent him curious glances back to each and then towards Naruto. "Ok then, now that has been established, on with the tour!" The scenery then changed to what looked like a hotel hallway that seemed to stretch forever with doors lining each side, and each had specific dates on them. Emma assumed that they were simply important memories to have been labeled with dates and that it was the only explanation.

As soon as she reached for the door, Naruto had interrupted her, "I will allow you to see my memories, but there are some personal things that I have made sure to keep to myself, and the memories that you see I would prefer to stay between us. I will reveal my past on my own free will and on my terms." It wasn't a threat that much they could tell, but rather a statement to respect his privacy and he wanted to make sure some things stay hidden.

"Very well." Emma had then begun to return to opening the door. And then she was hit with the memories: the Land of Waves, the Chunin Exams, his fight with Gaara, Orochimaru, the Valley of the End, the Akatsuki, Sai, Hidan &amp; Kakuzu, Mt Myoboku, Pain, his parents, the truth of the Uchiha Massacre, the war, Obito and the Ten-Tails, and finally Team 7's battle with Madara and then Kaguya. And with that, they understood why the feudal looking castle in his mind was off limits. If she were released, then there was nothing and no one that could to stop her, much less even lay a finger on her.

After viewing his memories and seeing for themselves his life, they had decided that he could stay. "I'm surprised you're still sane after everything." Emma had said.

"Eh, I've seen a lotta weird things to the point where I just wouldn't be surprised by anything anymore." Although, with what he was seeing here, that could change really quickly, given being in a new reality with who knows how many possibilities of weird and crazy going around.

"Then I shall take my leave. My best to you three and the school." And with that the doc disappeared in swirl of smoke.

"Alright, we'll get you settled in a room. In the meantime I'll take you down to the med bay so we can have your blood work on file along with your techniques and abilities." Scott had said. Naruto however had concerns about his cells getting out into the world. Madara had stolen Hashirama's back at the Valley of the End and was able to extend his life by several decades, awaken the Rinnegan, summon the Gedo Statue, and create the White Zetsu army from them. Now becoming more powerful than his previous incarnation, there was no telling how powerful someone could become by merging his cells and what kind of apocalypse they would bring. Naruto was going to voice his concern, but Emma had actually paid attention to the memories with more detail and had beaten him to the punch. "Don't worry Mr. Uzumaki, I'll ask Hank to have your data on a separate private file for our eyes only. We'll only diverge a little bit of information just enough to satisfy the O*N*E* higher ups. Once you're finished down in the med bay I'll have a room and a class schedule ready for you tomorrow."

"Thank you, ma'am." Naruto bowed in thanks and followed Scott out into the hallway down to the med bay, for his examination. It made sense for them to have a record of medical status and list of his techniques, the Hokage's had their own files of the Leaf shinobi currently active, so they would know who would be best to handle certain missions.

-About 2 hours and several medical tests later-

Naruto had met Mr. Hank McCoy, the X-Men's chief doctor and who also went by the codename "Beast" down in the med-bay, to say the least, he was one of the kindest men he had ever met. To say he was excited would be an understatement after examining him and going over his blood work, what really intrigued him was that he noted the change in Naruto's eyes that he had mentioned to the furry mutant.

-_1 hour earlier-_

"…_and your eyes were originally blue, but now after arriving here, you said that they had changed to this?" Hank had asked in curiosity whilst penciling in on his notepad. He believed that it may have been some sort of latent mutation within the boy. But he had another theory surrounding the change after receiving a little bit of info on how his people's mutation, or 'kekkei-genkai' developed and how they could be passed from one person to another; the main example was from his teacher named Kakashi had lost his left eye in battle and gained the one from his thought-to-be-deceased friend that had a mutation in his eyes to get the edge in a battle. It was all the more fascinating when he discovered the boy had a tertiary circulatory system._

"_Yeah, pretty much. My eyes were stinging for a while after I woke up back in that hospital when I first came here, and then they stopped when I kicked those guys' asses that tried to jump me while I was out checking the city out. That's when I saw them change in a nearby mirror."_

_Hank had taken a moment to think on how to put his theory into words the boy could understand, considering he wasn't very science savvy. "Well from what you've told me, the only thing I can say is that it came from that Madara fellow as he too had this 'Rinnegan' before being used as a medium by this Kaguya woman and his abilities were absorbed by her when it happened. And after sealing her away inside you, it seems her power unintentionally manifested itself, this being one of them." He believed more of this women's power would eventually manifest itself further as time went by, considering how much god-like power she wielded from Naruto had said._

"_That's actually what I kinda thought to. She only had Byakugan in her two eyes, but in her third eye she had like a Rinnegan and a Sharingan, like the one the Ten-Tails had." He figured the three tomoe around his eyes were another side effect of Kaguya's power leaking out into his body, he felt it ever since he and Sasuke had managed to beat her back in her dimension. Maybe Madara's Sharingan was somehow fused into the Rinnegan and he could use the abilities of both ocular jutsu's. He would have to test it out later. The Wood Style, if he got it too hopefully, would also be really handy in a fight. After going up against it and seeing the devastating power behind it, he would have to hone the skill as much as he could along with his newfound ocular powers._

-Now-

Scott had led Naruto to his room whilst explaining to him the layout of the school grounds and handed him his class schedule as he settled himself in. "Dinner time will be in a few minutes down in the cafeteria. If you want, take some time to familiarize yourself with some of the other students and staff. Classes will begin at 8 in the morning, so make sure not to oversleep."

"Yes sir, thank you for letting me stay here." Naruto bowed in thanks, and then began to unpack the rest of his things from the scrolls as Scott closed the door for his privacy. He unsealed his spare clothes and books and placed them in the drawers, whilst unsealing Madara's, or rather his Gunbai and decided to place it on his back to get a feel for moving around with it. He hadn't had the chance to use it at all when he picked it up during the final battle, now he wanted to be able to use it as much as he wanted too, in conjunction with his jutsu. He kept the Executioner's Blade and the Chakra Blades sealed up though; no need to make people afraid of him and warrant any caution.

He finally had unpacked his things but kept his headband, his dad's flak jacket and Jonin vest on though as well as Hashirama's necklace. He accidentally left it back at Myoboku while he was still in his Sage training to go fight Pain at the Leaf Village, afterwards he went back to get it before being confined to the Village when Danzo became the acting Hokage while Granny Tsunade was in a coma.

He then headed down the hallways to the cafeteria where there were still several dozens of students. Soon several heads turned to his direction and stared at him for a while. 'Wow. Now I know how Sai felt on our first mission together.' He thought to himself. He figured during the classes tomorrow someone might actually approach him or one of the teachers would introduce him during class. Either way, he didn't exactly feel welcomed just yet, so he decided go outside to the patio and walked up the side of the building and sat on the roof to make his own dinner with his Yin-Yang Style; Miso Pork Ramen to be exact. He didn't really know what else he could make, but didn't want to chance on making something he was gonna throw up later while he was asleep. He then dug in immediately and ate to his heart's content under the moon light, and smiling like his usual self.

-The Cafeteria with the New Mutants &amp; the Hellions-

The mismatched teams were sitting down with their food and talking amongst themselves, then almost the whole cafeteria went silent as the new guy walked into the entryway. They all took notice of his appearance: a black colored headband with a metal plate with some symbol they couldn't quite make out, a green vest that had multiple pockets for storing stuff, a long white trench jacket with orange flames on the bottom rim of jacket, weird open toed shoes, the strange purple colored eyes and what looked like a giant weird looking fan on his back. He stood there for a while looking across the cafeteria and then turned around to leave. Noriko immediately noticed the writing on the back of the jacket and recognized that it was Japanese that said 'Yondaime Hokage. 'Fourth Generation Fire Shadow', what does that mean exactly?' she thought to herself.

"That's the new guy you were talkin' about Santo? He don't look that impressive." Julian snorted in his arrogance. He had been told by several people that he had a superiority complex, but he brushed it off and said that they didn't know anything.

"I don't think you should underestimate him, I doubt that fan of his was just for show." And David knew it. No one carries something like that around unless it's used to give them an edge in battle.

"Whatever dude, I say I could take him on and wipe the floor with him, easily." Boy how Julian would be very wrong the next day during training.

A few minutes later, Jay had walked in to grab his food and then sat down with his friends. "Hey did you guys see the new student?" He wondered if anyone had the chance to talk with him to make him feel comfortable in the school.

"Yeah he just walked in, but then when everyone gave them the thousand yard stare, he just left." Santo had said while chowing down on his food with his mouth full.

"Santo, close your mouth. Like seriously?" Cessily had scolded him, like most of the other teammates had done in the past, hoping he would mature. Sad to say, he barely listens to them, as he kept on chewing with his mouth open, ugh.

"I actually just saw him head up to the roof and just made a cup ramen I think out of thin air." As soon as he said that, all eyes on the table immediately shot up wide and turned on him. The only one that spoke up was Noriko: "Bullshit…"

"No. Seriously, he made it out of nothing, I didn't see him use anything to make it with." He did just see the new guy simply hold out his hand and a cup just appear out of thin air. There were people that had a lot strange abilities, but creating something out of nothing was just something completely new to him.

Everyone was still wide eyed for a bit, but then their expressions went back to normal and returned to eating their dinner for the night. But they all had the same though: 'Who the hell was this new guy, and what else could he do?"

-With Naruto-

After finishing up his ramen, he jumped off the roof and went back inside towards his room, along the way he threw away his cup away in a trash can near the cafeteria, and took a shower afterwards. He felt a whole lot better once he had finished and set up his stuff they he wanted to. He had two pictures that he had kept with him at all times: one of his parents with his mother still pregnant with him, and the other was just after Team 7 had graduated from the academy with Kakashi-sensei. He laid them over on the Chester-drawer facing the door wall along with Hashirama's necklace.

He had his dad's vest and trench jacket placed on a coat hanger next to the door along with the Gunbai. He pulled out a set of night clothes and put them, he somehow knew that he would use them in the field, but he wasn't out for very long sometimes while on missions. But he liked to be prepared sometimes, even though he didn't really think things through all the way sometimes….ok maybe not all the way, but he did have an epiphany every now and then, but he usually liked to make things up as he went along. It worked out for him many times before, and he could more than likely still keep kicking ass and taking names, but now in a new world, he'd have to start thinking more and coming up with plans in the heat of battle, he wasn't Shikamaru for sure, but he'd make it work out in the end.

Before he went to bed, he decided to try and meditate for a bit, he did so every now and then to get a feel for the environment. Alas to his disappointment, there was hardly any nature around here. He could still enter his standard Sage Mode easily and hold it for several days, if not weeks now, with the chakra he wielded. But once he started to go deeper into his meditation, he found himself waking up for some reason on a warm floor in a plain white room, with what looked like no walls, no ceiling and no furniture, it was just…plain…where was he? This had never happened before. So what gives? He sat up to try and see what was going on, but he would have to ponder these questions later.

"Who are you?"

A womanly voice had called out to him and he began searching for the source, but to no avail nothing was in sight. He sat up and called back out. "Who's there? Who are you? Where am I?" Hopefully the voice would answer him back, luckily he didn't have to wait very long for one, but not one was answer to his questions.

"You're an oddity."

Ok, that much he could admit, but he seriously needed to figure out where the hell was he. "Uhm, that doesn't really answer my questions, but whatever."

"Your life has been filled with struggle and loneliness, but it is also filled with joy and love. After what has happened to you, do you believe you can make a difference here?"

Now her voice was starting to sound a little sagely, but also, she said that she basically had looked into his memories and saw his whole life. Who was she? "Oi! You peeked in my head without my permission! Don't you respect anyone's privacy?" He didn't want to sound rude, he really didn't. But he felt that she had violated his privacy.

"I apologize, but I needed to know who you were. Now that I know more, I can say this: You're words will shape the future of some very special individuals in the future, as well as the fate of others rest in your hands and their futures as well."

He was about to speak up, but she beat him to the punch- "And no, there isn't some prophecy about you that no one hasn't told you…yet." Oh great….just what he needed. "But I will say this. Your little whisker birthmarks are a rather cute. I'm honestly surprised that you haven't found a girl like your mother, but that could change later in the future." She had been really peeking into some really personal stuff now! And…..wait…..she though his birthmarks were…cute?

"Ok seriously, just who are you?!" He was officially getting rather annoyed and dumbstruck a bit. When the words left his mouth, a mirage had appeared a few feet in front of him. He couldn't make a whole lot of it out, but he could see that the figure was feminine, judging by the shape, frame, and the way she was walking towards him. Another thing he could make out was the long flowing and fiery red hair. The voice maybe? His thoughts were cut off then as what the figure held out her hand in front of him. He took it and then she had pulled him up to his feet and then he tried to make out her face, but once again, to no avail as a bright light was behind her, shrouding her face from view.

"Before you leave within a moment. You must promise me that you must not speak of this to anyone, for I fear it would complicate things between my precious people."

He wasn't sure what she meant by that, but he nodded his head yes in agreement. He was always one to keep his promises, and to never go back on them, though he was a little choosy with 'em. "But wait, can I at least know who you are?" She owed him that much he guessed, but she really hadn't done anything to warrant something. More than likely she was already reading his mind and possibly taking offense to the 'owing' thought, but to his surprise she simply chuckled as if she was asked by a funny question.

"I could tell you now, or I could tell you later. Perhaps later. That sounds good to me, I think I'm going to enjoy talking to you. It's been a while since I could talk to someone as interesting as you." And with that she had put her hand to his head and a bright flash of light appeared and blinded him for a moment, forcing him to close his eyes. When he opened them back up, he found himself back in his room, in the mansion, in the same meditative position as before. He looked around for any signs of the woman before, aaaaand….nothing…great. Another all-powerful being now speaking with him. It's not something he wasn't used to, but rather found it interesting and annoying at the same time for whatever reason he couldn't think of. Oh well, off to bed then. Had she not of asked him to make that promise, he would've asked someone later in the morning what had happened to him, but alas he couldn't. But at least he'd be able to get her name the next time they talked…hopefully. Little did he know, their future would grow to be an interesting one at that.

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_**Ok, wow, this took me a long time to write up. More than likely I'm going to find something that I didn't like and rewrite it. But anyway, for everyone that's wondering what time placement this is, it's the night of M-Day and the next day is when Naruto introduces and familiarizes himself with the X-Men and the X-Kids. Now make sure to visit my profile to vote on the pairing for this story, I'll keep it on for a good while and let the votes tally up. So without further ado, favorite, follow and review. Thank you everyone :)**_


	3. Chapter 2: Welcome to the X-Men

_**Hello everyone, and I apologize for the late update. I was finally able to beat Dragon Age: Inquisition with a near 100% completion rate several weeks ago, and it was irking me that I haven't completed the story yet, and I recently bought Alien: Isolation, and let me tell you, this game is heart pounding scary. The Alien is a serious pain in the ass since the AI is unpredictable, unlike the Working Joe androids that have a pattern to follow due to their basic programming. **_

_**But anyway, now some of you may be wondering if I just copy and paste story chapters and say that it's my work and that my story is similar to some other one on site. My answer to that is that I do not, I find it rather degrading that someone else would try to pull a stunt like that, I work hard, and sometimes I develop writers block and I can't think properly, but I would never steal someone else's work. But regardless, I thank those that enjoy my **__**stuff**__**, now on with the story! Also, I own nothing Naruto or Marvel related products and right**__**s**__** what-so-ever and they belong to their respective owners. Although I really wish I did!**_

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Chapter 2: Welcome to the X-Men

Naruto had decided to set his alarm for 5 in the morning as he didn't intend to slack off on his physical conditioning, even though his metabolism would end up burning away anything unhealthy in him. As he got up to put on his usual sweats, he snagged the Gunbai and strapped it on. He ever so quietly stepped outsides the mansion hopefully without waking anyone up so early in the morning…more than likely he'd be in for one hell of a talking too about waking people up so early in the morning.

He noticed the Sentinels standing guard even in the morning looking down on him intently, insuring that he wouldn't try anything. He hoarsely spat out "Jog" just loud enough to hopefully send the message to the pilot and then gave him a thumbs up.

"Hey should I radio command?" The newbie pilot had asked out of curiosity since he hasn't seen anyone get up this early in the morning.

"Nah, just write it down for the report later. Unless he's blowin' shit up or tryin' to make a run for it, who cares what he does." One of the senior pilot's answered back yawning tiredly. He had simply put the auto-surveillance systems on and slept to his heart's content, rather than pull an all-nighter, unlike the new recruits.

As soon as he was finished with at least 50 laps around the property, he wanted to test out one of the Rinnegan's abilities: the Deva Path. He wanted to see if he could use them just as effectively as Nagato did with his Six Paths of Pain. He channeled a bit of chakra into his eyes, and pointed his right hand with an open palm facing a small rock and said the words he remembered Yahiko/Pain say when they battled, "Bansho Ten'in." And with that the rock shot straight towards him into his palm and grasped it. He smiled at the results; he'd have to test the rest of the abilities out at a later time. He walked up to the side of the building quietly and began doing chin ups, push-ups, and crunches on the walls. Once about an hour and a half had passed by, he made his breakfast with his Yin-Yang Style out of the Sentinel's sights, his usual ramen delicacy since he didn't know anything else to make and he'd rather not head into the cafeteria in his state. Don't know how many noses would be clenched in disgust of his body odor.

After he was finished, he headed back to his room with his sweaty shirt off, a towel draped around his neck, while shouldering the Gunbai. Only a few of the students caught a glimpse of him shirtless while rubbing the morning out of their eyes heading to get a shower and breakfast before classes began for the day. There wasn't an ounce of fat on him, his muscles were all toned and trimmed to be practically perfect, he wasn't too buff, nor to skinny, just…right.

Once he had finished up with his shower, he put on some casual clothes that he would wear during his off time back in the village that he had packed in his scrolls and took a look at his schedule to see what he had for his first class. It had been about 4 to 5 years since he had even been in school, and he would usually slack off in class due to boredom or not believing the subject at hand was important enough, all wanted to do was just get some new ninjutsu, kick ass, take names and become the Hokage. He ended up paying for that in the long run for a good while since he flunked the final exam 3 times in a row, but he also knew it was a combination of his stupidity (yes he was admitting to being stupid when he was younger for once….but just this once) and the academy teachers (with the exception of Iruka-sensei) would intentionally sabotage any chance of him passing the exam.

But now in a new world, he'd do things differently, he would actually pay attention and make the effort in his classes. Plus for all he knew, he might actually enjoy learning the things about this world, especially if he was gonna be living it more than likely for the rest of his life.

His first class for the day was English. At least he could learn more on strengthening his newly adopted language skills that the Doc had helped given him when they met, he really didn't want to sound like a true blue idiot when he was talking to people. As the classes went by he only went as far as to introduce himself with only his name (with his usual enthusiasm of course), and that was about it. A few of the students had actually decided to strike up a conversation with him and they were rather accepting of him off the bat, even though he had just arrived in a bad time for mutant kind.

He hit it off with three other guys pretty well actually. One he had recognized was the reptilian boy that he saw when he first arrived at the mansion whose name was Victor Borkowski who mostly went by Vic, the other boys he had met were Jay Guthrie, a mutant who had red wings to fly about with and had healing powers and another, more advanced healer who had bright golden skin named Josh Foley. The three of them reminded him a bit of himself: laid back, friendly, probably more than willing to get involved with a few pranks (he'd ask them later what he could get away with as far as harmless goes), but the latter two seemed to be pacifist's more than brawlers like himself.

As the day went by they had an off period and then lunch afterwards finding it an appropriate time to get to him better, so they decided to go see their friend Laurie down in the med bay. Odd, he didn't notice anyone else back in the med bay yesterday when he was with Mr. Summers and Mr. McCoy doing his thing. Well he tended not to notice something's every now and then, oh well.

As they headed down to the room in which their friend was in, he was curious as to what had happened to her, so he spoke up to see what the problem was. Maybe he could fix her up with Creation of All Things?

"Hey, so what happened to your friend to land her down here? Was it a training accident or something?"

"It was an accident, but it wasn't during training. You know that yesterday, a lot of people lost their powers…well…one of our friends has the power to corrode organic objects into nothing but dust, and he thought that he lost his powers, and he touched Laurie on her arm. He didn't mean to though, so it's alright, but I don't think he's really forgiven himself for hurting her." Josh had explained to Naruto.

He thought that having an ability like that could be used for a good purpose if taught properly, maybe he could develop a seal for the guy if it could be possible to turn his ability on and off at will, though he may have to get with Mr. McCoy to help him out with that endeavor. His thoughts were cut off when they arrived to see their friend. When he saw her hand almost eradicated and covered in bandages to keep an infection from possibly getting into it, it seemed like if her skin came in contact with a bluntly sharped object, then it would break almost instantly from contact.

"Hey guys, what's up?" She looked at her friends and then turned her attention to the new person in front of her with her friends. "Oh, hi there, what's your name?" She wasn't too sure of what to say to the newcomer other than asking his name.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, nice to meet ya." He exclaimed proudly while point his thumb at himself and smiling like his usual happy-go lucky self.

She was perplexed by his name. It sounded similar to Noriko's but he didn't look like he was from Japan like her. She took note of his whisker like marks on his face along with the strange looking eyes he had and the weird giant fan on his back.

"He's new to the school Laurie, so we're just showing him around the place and introducing him to our friends and whatnot." Jay had spoken up.

Naruto eyed the girl's hand a little more and put his hand to his chin thinking that he can heal her arm. "Hey let me see your arm, I think that I can heal it up with no problem." They all grew wide eyed at the blonde's words. Josh and Jay had tried numerous times for long hours trying to heal Laurie's arm, but to no avail, the only thing they were able to do was eliminate the pain.

"Wait, you can heal her!" Josh asked in surprise as he was the only advanced healer in the school. Jay was a healer too, but nowhere near his level.

Naruto thought for a moment, and decided to say it was simply part of his mutation. He didn't want to reveal all his skills just yet and say that he was from a different reality with 10 very powerful beings sealed inside him. No telling how they would react to that. "Yeah it's part of my mutation. It should be pretty easy actually, I managed to regrow Kakashi-sensei's eye no sweat." As Naruto used his Creation of All Things ability on Laurie's arm, they grew even more astonished and their jaws had dropped a bit seeing the blonde's work. Her arm had completely reverted back to what it had looked like before Kevin had nearly withered it away.

"Holy crap!"

Laurie was shocked as well. Josh tried almost all day yesterday, and no change had been made and he was an omega-class healer. And now this new student comes along, and makes it seem like a breeze. She was honestly speechless. "Thank you…" She wondered what else he could do.

"There, now it's back to normal." Naruto wasn't one to sit by while other people were hurt, and this was no different.

"I'll um…go get Mr. McCoy real quick." Vic had said still rather unsure how to register what he saw. When he returned with Beast, he told the doctor what had happened and was astounded that Naruto was able to do so. When he told him he could heal people, he didn't think to this level of a degree as dead cells couldn't be healed. Hank had Laurie finally checked out and they were able to make it to lunch and they sat with the rest of their friends.

-The rest of the New Mutants &amp; the Hellions-

"Hey the new guy's with Josh, Jay, Vic…and Laurie? Wasn't she supposed to be in the med bay with her arm all messed up?" Julian had said a little flabbergasted. His teammate Kevin had just turned around wide eyed to see that his teammate was telling the truth.

"She's supposed to be? Did Josh heal her arm up already?" Sofia Monteya, whom had lost her powers as well, was still with her friends, even though she would be leaving just like the rest of the depowered students.

"Yo their headin' our way, we'll just ask 'em what's the deal." Santo said sitting down with his tray piled up with junk food. He never really had to eat healthy since his whole body was mad of rocks, so screw a healthy diet, he could pig out all he wanted and never feel the backlash. Though he got verbal backlash from his friends and teachers complaining on his eating habits.

They all eventually settled down at their table hoping to get to the bottom of it, and maybe even find out more about their new student.

"Hey guy's, this is Naruto. He's the new student who came in yesterday." Jay had introduced him to his right side with Naruto raised his hand to the rest of the students. "Yo." He wasn't sure what to say to these guys, so he decided to try and bullshit his way through this little social interaction…for now.

"Naruto, these are the New Mutants and the Hellions." Naruto had raised an eyebrow at the introduction. Seeing this Jay realized that he probably didn't know about the curriculum and that someone should have explained it to the blonde. "Oh, right, sorry 'bout that. You're still new here, so no one's given you the basic structure of the student body. We're divided into squads and we're given an advisor, one of the senior X-Men and they train us so we can use our powers to work together as a team." It made sense to him, teamwork was essential in the field and it was practiced in every village back home.

Soon a girl dressed in a burqa had sat up out of her chair and extended her hand out in greeting him. "I'm Sooraya Qadir, it's good to meet you Naruto." He took her hand to shake it and smiled away. "Likewise." Soon a raven haired kid stood up and announced his name along with several others.

"Names' Julian Keller, and we're the Hellions. Sooraya's ours and here's Santo, Kevin, Brian, and Cessily." He was pointed to each of the kids sitting at the table in order of their names. The one named Santo was the rock golem person he had saw yesterday when he came to the school with the Doc. The guy named Kevin wore all black and grey with a pair of leather gloves, while Brian looked like he was from the Hidden Cloud village and the Cessily girl appeared to be made out of pure metal. Naruto waved to each of them. Soon Jay and Josh introduced their friends afterwards.

"And this is our team: The New Mutants. Here's David, Noriko, and Sofia." David was another guy who looked like he came from the Cloud Village, while Nori came from the Hidden Mist Village, and the Sofia girl had long brown hair tied in a ponytail that went down midway to her back.

Nori tried not to laugh at the blonde kid's name, but decided to poke him a bit. "Fishcake? Really...? Did your parents just name you after a damn topping or were they just joking around when the doc asked for your name?" Santo and Julian had laughed a little, while Sofia glared at the two boys making them shut up and had swatted Noriko on the shoulder and gave her a look to make her apologize.

Naruto soon developed a scowl on his face, along with a tick mark that became visible to everyone at the table making them wonder how he could do that. He wasn't out of an anime or a Japanese comic right? That, and Naruto wanted to take swing at her face for basically insulting his parents, but he didn't due to not wanting to start a fight on his first day. "Why is it that everyone always goes for the 'fishcake' thing? It also means 'maelstrom' in the kanji...but no...it's always fishcake. And no my parents weren't joking around, they named me deliberately."

Nori deflated after hearing that and sent an apologetic look towards him. "Sorry..."

Naruto had developed a mental block at an early age to the type of comments made at his name, but having his parents basically called dumb for naming him was something he hadn't developed a block against. He remembered back to his fight against Obito when he was the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, had called his dad and the title of Hokage a joke and a failure; to Naruto it was an unforgivable thing to say. "Eh, it's alright, I'm used to name insults, but insulting my parents isn't something I'm very fond of mind you."

Josh decided to try and ease the tension in the atmosphere and wanted to avoid a fight if at all possible since they didn't know the full extent to Naruto's abilities.

"So, uh where're you from Naruto?" He knew this was coming and several other questions along with it, so it's time to let the bullshitting begin. "Yah, what can you do?" Julian had asked in avid curiosity since training in the Danger Room would begin after lunch. "And what's with that weird looking thing on your back dude?" Santo didn't know what the hell it even was.

"Julian shut up, you know its taboo to ask someone their mutation the next day they get here!" Cessily had berated her teammate. He really lacked a filter for being blunt with his words.

He thought for a moment since Josh and the other two guys saw him heal Laurie's arm, so he couldn't deny that, but he could give them something else...the truth. Well maybe not the whole truth, but just enough to satisfy the teens. He'd wanna show off his Jutsu's at a later time. "Well, I have a vast amount of energy that resides in me, and I can use it to manipulate elements namely the Wind Style. I augment my own body to I crease my speed and strength, and I can heal people." He hoped that would be enough to satisfy them for the time being, odds are though, he'd have to spill his guts to them eventually, but now wasn't the time.

"Ta-da! He even fixed my arm!" Laurie had exclaimed happily to the others widening their eyes with awe.

"Aw come one man, we know you made food out of nothin', you gotta have other stuff man." Santo said what everyone was thinking.

Damn. He should've been more careful the first night he was here, he had to try and bullshit some more. "I did say I could do other stuff, buuuuut, show-and-not-tell is just better in my opinion when the time comes." He kept his foxy grin on as he said it, plus he wanted to see if could test out his new ocular Jutsu's at a later time.

"Ahh man." Santo sad. Santo no get awesome answer. 'Why the hell am I thinking in third-person? Oh well, it just sounds cool, so who really cares? No can hear me, right? Well, except Ms. Frost, but she don't usually read everyone's minds daily...does she?'

"We'll see about that later, the Danger Room training class is after lunch and everyone's gonna be there to watch and see." Julian knew that he'd have to show his abilities off, so whatever he had, he'd show off. Plus it was a chance to see if he really could kick the new guys' ass.

"So where are your parents Naruto?" David was curious if his parents either shipped him off here without a second though or did they actually want what was best for him and believe that what the Institute stood for.

Naruto decided to play the whole 'depressed' card, but in truth he was alright knowing his parents died to protect him. So he would end up giving them a half-truth once again. "My parents died the night I was born…they were…murdered by a man. And now that man is dead. I've been an orphan my whole life."

Everyone went wide eyed at his words, they really felt like crap right now for not being really friendly towards the blonde when he first arrived, but before anyone could even speak up, Naruto had held his hand out to pause their response. "I know that some of you will more than likely try to say something to try and comfort me, but it's alright, I eventually found people that were precious tome; people that I could call family." The teens were utterly shocked as to how someone who had grown up without any parental love or guidance, and he looked to be that of a happy-go-lucky type of person who was at peace with himself and others without a care in the world. They went back to eating through their lunch and talked about their own business while Naruto sat silently for a while just absorbing the information and whatnot for later times to talk with them.

Once they were all finished in the cafeteria, they had a brief ten minute break for them to get suited in their uniforms and head to the Danger Room for class time. Naruto decided to swap back to his shinobi gear with his dad's vest and jacket and slung the Gunbai on his back. As he got out of his room, he saw Josh and Jay walking towards him to hang out with him before the class began.

Once they had arrived, Naruto was a little confused as to why the room was only a large circular, bright, and silver room. There wasn't any training gear in sight, so what was that they did in here? Hand-to-hand? Power-to-power? Standard cardio? "Wait where's all the training equipment and stuff? Don't they have that here?"

Josh decided to step in and explain the room to the new guy. "Actually the Danger Room creates holographic environments, people and objects, so we have a lot of stuff to train with. That, and the room can also create obstacle courses from the machinery inside the floor and the walls, and it also makes predictions to what you'll do, so you always have to stay on your toes."

"So it's basically a dry run for future missions and increases your own power control and reaction time."

"Basically."

"So how is everything controlled in case someone ends up biting off more than they can chew?" There had to be safeties and such to prevent serious injury or death, otherwise they wouldn't let students in here. He got his answer when Josh pointed up to ceiling and saw the see through glass room with computers and other technology strewn throughout the room. "That's the control room for the all the systems that operate it, don't worry though, they have safeties in all the systems built in that can be initiated automatically or manually even."

At least he could come down here for training and to practice his Jutsu, without anyone seeing for the most part unless they happened to just walk into the place. Maybe he could ask Mr. McCoy for help in creating the enemies he had faced back home to keep up with and surpass, seeing as how some of them had gotten the better of him at times like the Sound Ninja, while others he never got the chance to take on like Sasori or Hidan.

The students soon made their way to the center of the room where Mr. Summers and another guy shorter than him in a weird looking yellow and blue suit and a mask over his head were standing next to each other. Naruto assumed that this guy was another teacher here at the school, though he had to wonder what he could do. He already knew a few of the teachers' abilities. Ms. Pryde could phase through solid objects like Obito could do, but he had to wonder if she slipped inside her own separate pocket dimension, but couldn't access it somehow. Mr. Wagner could teleport in almost an instant, but he left a cloud of gray dust and a sulfuric smell as he did; again like Obito without the usage of a hand sign, but his dad could and the Second Hokage could teleport within a split second and not get noticed by an enemy. Ms. Frost could read minds like Ino and her dad, and Mr. Summers could shoot out energy from his eyes with the help of that visor of his.

Maybe he could ask his help in testing out the Preta Path of his Rinnegan later to see if the same could be applied here as it was back home? It'd be a huge advantage against people who could manipulate energy like that. His thoughts were cut short as Mr. Summers had spoken up to the kids.

"Alright, today we'll be testing out your endurance and skills to see how they've improved since last week. Everyone will stay here for the standard cardio and obstacle course and then we'll move on to the strength test afterwards. Once that's done we'll head up to the control room and everyone will be put through a Danger Room session one person at a time. Professor Logan will be in charge of that." He held what looked like a data pad in his hand while the other man had his hands crossed and spoke up.

"Alright I want everyone to form a line with your squad, then we'll go down the line with each of 'em."

Naruto wasn't exactly sure what to do since he wasn't assigned a squad so he decided to ask Mr. Summers in that little thing. "Uh, I haven't really been assigned a squad per say yet, so..."

"I'll have you stick with the New Mutants, Josh Foley's team for the time being until we get you situated with a squad and an advisor." He didn't really think that Naruto needed to be put into a squad due the blonde's decades worth more experience in the matter of teamwork and his power sets, but he noticed the he gotten a chance to talk with Foley and Guthrie a bit during lunch, so he thought that it would be best to have him with people he knew. He needed to make some friends here his age, now more than ever.

"Ok, thanks sir." He gave a nod and headed towards Josh and the others who had formed a line next to their rivals the Hellions.

"What are you doing here in our squad?" Nori asked in minor annoyance.

A pulsating tick mark began to grow and show visibly on his forehead, giving everyone a strange look on their faces, "Hey, I didn't really have a squad to go to since I just got here, and I asked Mr. Summers about it and he put me with ya'll so lay off would yah." Nori had a small scowl on her face that obviously said he wasn't welcome.

"Nori come one, you need to give Naruto a chance, we don't know him that well, so be nice." David had calmly belated his girlfriend deflating her expression.

"Sorry..."

"So what's the deal that almost everyone here has with me? Last night it looked like wanted to beat me down." 'Not that they really could.' He thought to himself.

David decided to explain the reason behind the tense atmosphere as of late. "A lot of the students feel that the ones who lost their powers will replace one of us, once we get sent home, since we're not exactly 'gifted' anymore."

"Yeah, I know how that feels a bit." Sai had come to mind with David's explanation, he and Sakura were weary of him when they first set off with him to find Sasuke. Had it not been for Captain Yamato, they never would've accepted him, rather they more than likely would've killed him under suspicion of betraying the village to Orochimaru.

As soon as they had begun with their standard cardio workout, everyone noticed Naruto's stamina and agility. They all saw how he was able to perfectly time his movement's right in the obstacle course that was set up for them. It was one of the more grueling one's that Professor Logan liked to run where it would hit you every now and then, just when you lest expected it. But for the new kid, it was no sweat. Literally, he hadn't broken a single sweat where others where showing some signs of fatigue, he had none.

'Maybe it's that vast amount of energy he told us about?' Everyone had though the exact same thing. Weird huh?

Logan had been watching the new kid with heavy concentration. He knew even he would get a hit at least a couple of times, but never had he made a run that he didn't take a hit doing so. He turned his head towards Scott. "He slim. Who's the new kid? He just get sent here today?"

"Actually Stephen Strange had brought him in sometime last night, he's not actually from around these parts."

"Different country?"

"Alternate reality, and he'd rather keep that to himself for the time being from the other students." He knew it wasn't his place to go telling everyone Naruto's back story; that was a decision of his own to make. But that didn't mean he couldn't help him out with settling in to a new home. He knew someone that's in a similar position like the kid.

"So what else can the kid do? He's already got reflexes that basically let him dodge every strike thrown in his way, and his stamina ain't that bad neither." That's what he was wondering. Though he got his answer from Scott's data pad, and after browsing halfway through it, he was actually impressed the kid had this many 'techniques' up his sleeve.

"Alright everyone take five for the time being, then we'll get the strength test set up for those of you who can do it."

As soon as everyone was finished with the course some of the students were either standing straight up with some signs of fatigue, while other had placed their hands on their knees panting.

Once they were done the strength test had been set up. It was a large platform that had been lowered down by two spring like metallic arms coming out of the ceiling connecting to what looked like a two arm bars on the bottom showing where to hold the object from when the weights began dropping.

"Ok breaks over guys. Now, Rockslide, Onyxx, Hellion and Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. I want you four to form a horizontal line in front of the machine and step up once your name's been called."

Naruto was curious to see how far the other students could go, and so was he. Even though he knew that he could lift quite a bit, he didn't really know any exact measurements of weights, so he couldn't really say how far he could go exactly.

As the other three students began their time, he was told that that each of the weights had weighed 5 tons. What the hell! Could he even do this? Wait...he was able to lift Kurama by only one of his tails when he battled the fox for his chakra, but then again they were in his mindscape, so he couldn't really say he could do it.

Nevertheless, he paid attention to see how far the other students went. Santo, or Rockslide was his apparent codename, could lift up to 75 tons before being brought to his knees by the weights, Hellion as Julian was called, could lift up to about 50-60 tons depending on how much concentration he had put into his 'telekinesis' as it was called, and the last student, Onyxx since he didn't know his name, could lift up to 105. Finally it all came down to him. **(AN: In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure how much they can actually lift, so I'm just guessing for now.)**

"How much you wanna bet he doesn't even make it past the 20 mark?" Julian had asked in humor at Santo &amp; Onyxx.

"Ugh...men are so stupid." Nori was annoyed to the point where she was about to just say 'screw it' with men and try out women after David...though she doubted it would come to that. Hopefully not...ugh.

"This will give us a better idea of your strength level. And we'll have a codename for you once the rest of the staff has had a better look at your techniques." The visored headmaster had explained to the blonde shinobi.

Naruto nodded and stepped underneath the bars and gripped with anticipation of the weights about to be dropped on to them. He knew he couldn't lift even a ton given in his normal form with chakra, he could lift up to about at least maybe 200-300 lbs or so. So he decided to just use his Toad Sage Mode for the time being to see how far he could get with it. So he began to gather what natural energy there was in the area and channel it throughout his body.

Everyone noticed the change in Naruto's eyes. He developed an orange pigmentation above and around the sides of his eyes, along with a seemingly noticeable horizontal bar that had replace the dot within the center of his eye already present inside the ripple pattern.

He began to stay steady after he hit 50 tons, giving some of the people, the boys who bet against him primarily, astonished looks that he could lift this much without showing any fatigue before arriving at the Institute. Most of the students had to work up their strength among others thing as well when they got here, not off the bat.

-Cyclops-

Scott was about to call time for the boy, but he remembered what strength he had in his 'other' form, so he decided against it. And right on the dot, he felt the atmosphere begin to heat up and the air become thick. He knew there that Naruto had entered what he called his Six Paths Mode, where he wielded almost absolute god-like power.

-Naruto-

'You know what? Fuck it. I'll just say it's my mutation showing up more.' He thought to himself. He wanted to try and at least make it past that Onyxx kid and make some kind of record to show off. Well maybe not a whole lot, since only a few of the students had actually warmed up to him and weren't a little rude or hostile towards him.

So he underwent his transformation into his Six Paths Sage Mode, but when he did, he noticed a few changes to his appearance. While his main body suit hadn't changed all that much, instead of the jacket he had, it was like his trench cloak that he had before Kurama was ripped from him when he used the fox's chakra fully, and instead of having a bright golden glow to his body, it was white, black and grey similar to how Madara and Obito had looked when they became the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki's. There were also ten instead of six Truth-Seeking Balls floating behind him, most likely due to having the other Tailed Beasts and Kaguya sealed inside him.

After a while he hit the 150 mark, he decided that it was enough. In truth he could probably go more, but he didn't wanna be a big ol' show off. "Ok time!" As soon as he said the words, the weights then one by one began to recede back into the ceiling until he could let go and step out from underneath the platform.

-The Students-

Everyone was in awe of Naruto's transformation with wide eyes, and jaws dropped as he lifted the weights with only one arm and no signs of fatigue or wear. The change in the atmosphere as they could clearly tell was from their new colleague. But it was Santo who had spoken up for everyone within those moments.

"Holy crap."

"Yeah man you said it, what the hell kind of mutation does that to a guy?" Julian was confused as to whether or not this transformation could even be a mutation much less he be a mutant or even human.

"He may have just been suppressing it this whole time. I doubt that he's human obviously, but he could be one of the last few Omega-level mutants on the planet. Maybe even beyond Omega." But the way it looked and felt was as if he bonded to some cosmic entity, like how the Phoenix Force had done with Jean Grey, although he was trying to come up with some other theory as to how his appearance changed so drastically.

As Naruto deactivated his Six Paths Mode he felt almost refreshed. He was pondering why until some of the students ran up to him and began bombarding him with questions.

"How did you do that?"

"What are you?"

"Is that your mutation?"

"Where you born that way or this way?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down with the questions seriously. That was my mutation. I'm a mutant for sure, definitely. And no, I was born looking just like you guys, but one day when I was about eight, I found out that I was a mutant (even though I didn't know what I was exactly at the time), when I just turned into that. But I eventually was able to revert back to looking human once I got it down." He hoped that would be enough to satisfy them until he could trust them enough to tell them the truth, if he ever did. It was almost unbelievable that at an early age before puberty that his mutation kicked in and was able to grasp it's abilities and could control it to such a degree. Everyone else practically freaked out when their mutations manifested and could barely keep it under control.

"Ok, now that we're finished up with the course and tests, we'll begin the Danger Room sessions. Everyone head up to the control room."

The students had made their way up to the control room and each of them took their turns going through Danger Room sessions using their powers. As they went through each of the sessions, Naruto had watched each of the students could do. Soorayh could turn he whole body into sand, and she could control it just like Gaara could. Nori used her gauntlets to control her lightning and could move at high speeds almost like the Third &amp; Fourth Raikage's. Cessily could morph her body into any type of bladed or blunt weapon and could slip out of tight spaces. Julian used telekinetic blasts from his hands that emitted a weird green glow when he used it, and so on and so forth with the other students, until it finally came down to him.

"Alright kid your up, so get in down there." Logan was interested in how the new kid would fight.

Naruto made his way back down towards the training floor, and waited for the simulation to begin. While this was happening, he began to see which of the other Rinnegan abilities he should test out, and if he could use the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in cohesion with it. Cyclops had the run set up for him: 60 holographic opponents from the Hellfire Club. It was something Naruto more than likely would be able complete in a few minutes.

"Begin."

As soon as the words were heard over the intercom, he decided to try out the Animal Path. He then thought back to the chameleon that was summoned back in the village when he fought the Six Paths of Pain and decided to try and bring it out.

"Summoning Jutsu." As soon as he brought his hands together as the Nagato had done, he tried to imagine the chameleon, and it appeared soon after.

The chameleon opened up its mouth and Naruto jumped inside of the already disappearing giant animal. Everyone had the jaws dropped &amp; eyes wide in astonishment and disbelief, they had never seen anything like this before in their lives. Logan was speechless to say the least with slightly widened eyes, he saw a lot of strange crap in his life, this one just more so than usual.

'At least I can see through the chameleon's eyes. Maybe that's the case with all of the Rinnegan summoned animals. A little disorienting, but I'll get used to it.' Seeing through the chameleon's eyes was rather weird, but Nagato had controlled the Six Paths of Pain and the Animal Path's animals at the same time, so it was a huge advantage to have little to no blind spots when it came to a fight. Maybe he could create some sort of seal to use in conjunction with his future teammates to cover their backs.

The holographic Hellfire troops began looking around for their intended target, it lost sight once the chameleon disappeared. After about a minute or so, a giant three-headed dog with what looked like spikes in their noses had appeared in a puff of smoke and ran directly at the fake soldiers tearing them limb from limb.

'Ok, the Animal Path works out pretty well, but now for the Asura Path.' He thought to himself as the dogs tore up about 20 of the troops. He made a Shadow Clone that appeared outside the chameleon and dispersed the dog, soon it began to concentrate on creating the armor the Asura Pain had used and grew 4 additional arms with several weapons forming from the hands. The clone sped towards the troops and delivered several punches to the chest's, it felt almost like he was fighting another Shadow Clone when the disappeared from the room after being beaten. The Asura Path Naruto cut up a few of the soldiers and stabbed them in the vital spots leaving 'blood stains' on the floor that almost painted a third of the room.

'Cool, the Asura Path is working out pretty good right now, though I doubt I can use the Human, Preta, and Naraka Path's here, but let me see if I can try out the Mangekyo's abilities.' He had the Asura Naruto disperse and created another outside, he began to channel chakra to his eyes and further changing them to Madara's Eternal Mangekyo and the grey purple to a bright red within the still present ripple pattern.

'Ok, I doubt I'll be able to use the prefect Susanoo in here given that thing is massive enough to go through several stories, so I'll just develop it up until the skin past the skeleton when I first saw Madara use it against the 4th Division.'

He began to channel more chakra to both of his eyes and he was able to get the ribcage going, however he saw that the color of the Susanoo wasn't the blue of Madara's, nor the purple of Sasuke's, and not even the orange of Itachi's, but rather it was colored almost black and gray.

He remembered from what Gaara told him back when Sasuke had attacked the Gokage Summit, he coated the ribcage in the Amaterasu flames for added protection against the Raikage, though that still didn't stop the man's determination to kill him. He could easily camouflage the flames in his Susanoo and none would be the wiser.

'Coooool.' He thought to himself.

However he also noticed that the body of his Susanoo was humanoid like the others, but its body was almost feminine, and its two primary eyes were glowing blue, the most shocking thing of all though, was the third eye it had developed glowed red, and had horns sticking out of its head giving its appearance almost like Kaguya's.

'This has to be another manifestation of her power. I really hope it's not leaking out of me, otherwise I'm gonna have a hard time controlling these new Jutsu's.' He had wondered if and when Kaguya would awake if she would cut off all access to her power given that she believed that all chakra belonged to her, but he wasn't entirely sure since he felt her final emotions back in her dimension.

As the Susanoo finally formed to what Naruto had imagined it for the skin was almost like a shihaksho that covered up a good majority of the skeletal frame and had four arms that had two of them normally placed where they should be, but the other two arms had grown out of the same spots like Madara's, however the difference was that the arms were completely formed and were limbs of their own, instead of growing out of the main arms.

The forward arms began to create swords that glowed an eerily white that appeared to be double edged and looked about 15 feet in length. Soon the ethereal figure began cutting into the rest of the Hellfire soldiers and sending some others flying into the air exposing themselves to be yanked in the air by the rear arms and slammed down into the floor. After all was said and done, the Danger Room session ended in about 5 minutes and 42 seconds, a new record time for the simulation.

-In the Control Room-

"Soooo...still think you can kick his ass Julian?" Nori decided to answer after she had gotten over the shock of seeing Naruto's abilities, while other people were still in shock.

"Shhhh, I-I didn't say that!" He wouldn't stand a chance in a fight against Naruto now that he knew as a fact of science.

"Dude, this is so unfair, he's got so many cool powers than even the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers put together!"

"Not all power is a gift Santo."

The students jumped almost out of their clothes when they heard the blonde begin them. How did they not notice him! Well when you're the number 1 best ninja, or rather knucklehead ninja, you tend to be rather sneaky at times…or clumsy…either way.

"How did you get from there to here so fast?" Jay was practically next to the doorway and would've noticed if anyone had come in.

They got their answer when Naruto picked up a weird looking knife on the floor with some kanji scribble on a paper wrapped around the grip. "I teleported here to this. It was easy." He had his fox grin on while twirling the kunai around his finger and then sheathing it in his holster strapped to his right leg.

"Ok that's it for the day, we'll continue tomorrow. Dinner should be almost ready." The headmaster had said. He knew that Naruto would be able to complete the session with little to no effort. Although, the other teams would probably vie to get him in their own to hopefully gain a massive advantage in later field days, if there were going to be. But despite how so many things have changed in the last 2 days, he was determined to make sure the students lives would stay the same and protect them from future dangers as long as they were here at the Institute. Although, Emma had been trying to send the non-mutants back to their homes when for their own safety, as many anti-mutant groups were no doubt making plans to take everyone still here out of existence.

The students went back to their rooms with their respective roommates to change out of their x-uniforms, Naruto decided to just head straight to the cafeteria and eat as much Ramen as he could before people started to show up, as he had no doubt more questions would be asked from him. He wasn't ready yet to tell them his story, but he could take comfort in knowing that Sasuke more than likely made it back with Sakura, Kakshi-sensei and Obito to their dimension and released the Infinite Tsukuyomi with his Rinnegan eye.

He had made about 20 ramen cups with the Yin-Yang Style and began to eat through them one by one and as fast as he could whilst savoring the goodness that was the food of the gods. As soon as he had finished up with the last few bowls, other students started to enter the cafeteria in their casual clothes to grab their food. Naruto had finished up with the last cup, folded them down and stacked them up to take to the trash. He had walked right past the New Mutants and Hellions when he had left the cafeteria with questioning looks and they spotted the trash filled with ramen cups with wide eyes.

"Bye, catch you guys tomorrow during class." He hurried off to his room to see if he could meditate back into the white room and talk to that red-headed woman again.

"Did he just head straight here after the Danger Room?"

"It seems like it. I wanted to ask what else he could do." Summoning a giant chameleon and a three-headed dog, growing armor, steel skin and weapons, and creating an ethereal being to come and aid him in combat were astounding abilities. David began compiling the info for later when they found out who Naruto really was. He was an enigma if he could be called anything.

As soon as Naruto was back in his private room, he jumped straight into the shower and slipped into his night clothes afterwards. But just as he was about to begin meditating, he felt a very familiar presence on the school grounds somewhere outside, that only he knew what it was: Chakra. That should be impossible, no one else from his dimension should even be here. But the chakra disappeared moments later, he pondered what could have happened to it, but he'd figure it out later, right now he went back to his meditation.

-Outside the mansion-

'Hmm, I should have taken further steps to conceal myself from him. The O*N*E*s Sentinels can't detect me. Frost and the telepaths can't read my mind, and Wolverine can't smell me. But I forgot about his senses. Oh, well. But at least I can see that this is where things began to change within this reality.'

The figure was completely draped in a black cloak and wore a helmet with a black colored visor covering his entire face and went over his head, and had a hood draped over his head. He brought up his left hand and unsleeved a strange device on his arm that appeared to be slightly damaged and low on power.

'I can't make the jump back even with repairs, it seems I'll have to lay low for the time being until the moment arrives.'

The figure had faded out of sight to where ever he had setup shop for the time being.

-Naruto-

And with luck, he was back in the white room, unlike before however the woman was right there when he came to. She motioned for them to sit down in a cross legged position and they began their conversation. Naruto was finally able to get a good look at her face this time, she looked very similar to his own mother with the sincere smile on her face and red hair, although his mother's hair was dark like a tomato, her hair was bright like a fiery blaze. Overall she looked rather beautiful, not a deformity or blemish on her skin as far as he could tell.

"You're back. So how was your first day at the school?"

"It was strange honestly with the way it felt, although I did make a couple of friends today. Did you ever go to that place?" He was curious about what connection she had with him and who she knew there.

"I actually attended and taught there for a while. But, that was another life ago." She sounded a little depressed. He was about to apologize, but she held her hand up in a sagely manner to halt his next words. "I know what you were going to say, but it's alright, I had lived a long and good life there, I have no regrets." Naruto eyes were widened at her words. He began to wonder if she was this dimensions' Sage of Six Paths.

Soon she felt a presence invading into the White Hot Room, she saw further into the boy's future and immediately decided to send him back, as his safety was her concern. "I'm afraid that our talk today will have to be cut short. But I do leave you knowing this: There will be lives that you can save, but those you cannot." She stood up holding her hand out to him, and he took it. As he stood up, she hugged him and gave him a small kiss on his forehead. "Don't worry. One day you will find someone just like her, and live a long and happy life with that girl." He disappeared in a haze of flames.

When he left, a tear had opened up behind her, it was the invading presence that she had sensed before momentarily. The figure had stepped out of the tear and the two of them stared at each other in curiosity for a minute until the intruder had spoken up.

"I have been looking for a descendant of mine, he was meant to return with friends after a battle, but he did not, I feared that he may have become trapped within a dimension alone, but I am glad to see that I was wrong."

The figure was tall and pale-skinned man, who had deep wrinkles. He had spiky, shoulder-length, pale-red hair, with a chin-length braid hanging in front of his left ear. He also sported a short goatee which tapered down to his waist given his age. He had horn-like protrusions on his forehead along with the boy's eyes but he had no eye brows. He also had a red eye marking in the center of his forehead and wore a white, full-length kimono with a pattern of six red magatama around a high collar, beneath which he wore a necklace which was also made up of six red magatama. Overall, he looked to be a man of wisdom that came from years of experience. He remind her of Xavier a bit.

"Don't fret, he's within good hands and among friends." She waved her hand down and the floor had changed to that of the Institute and the ceiling became transparent showing the inhabitants. She explained the situation with the state of this world and mutant kind. The man had closed his eyes in thought and then opened them back up with a sincere smile on his face.

"I see then, I trust you to look after the boy then in my stead. But I fear that with his presence within your own dimension has drastically altered the events of the future. For better or for worse I don't know, but be weary, and help him to make the right decision where he is indecisive."

She nodded in acknowledgment to the man's words. Once they had their exchange the wise man had walked back through the tear and it closed.

'Things will never be the same, will they?' She mused to herself. But her thoughts were cut short when she saw a piece of the future, it was odd. She had once been able to see the future events of the earth, but now it was becoming clouded and a blur. She saw a man in a black visored helmet fighting against a young woman with two different eyes. For what reason she couldn't hear from the muted shouting that they were exchanging, and soon they clashed and the vision disappeared. 'They won't….'

-K'un Lun-

"Quickly go Master Yu Ti and Lei Kung now!"

The monk was running through the temple hallways as fast as he could to reach the master. Never once has the old man been so desperate to tell anyone anything. Soon they had arrived at the study in a calm pace, but their minds were racing as to what they needed to know.

"What is it?"

"A page within the Book of the Fallen has been changed, whatever I had seen before when I had read it for the first time, it just changed…as if the very future had been altered, and very recently I might add. But…another page had just appeared next to this one."

He led to the other two men to the room that had held the open book, and had shown them the page of what was originally two feminine beings surrounding a yin-yang symbol. But now a third had appeared within the symbol holding hands with the two previous beings and nine animals surrounding the three of them. The one on top wore an oni-like mask and a purple-pink robe on, while the other on the bottom had fiery long red hair, a golden dragon on the chest and green training pants with a golden sash tied to the waist. But third was a being glad in a white kimono, spiky yellow hair, a massive fan and a blade crossing each other on the figure's back. He also had his palms ignited with what appeared to be flames; one blue, and the other red connecting his palms with the other being above and below him.

"This page foretells of the one whom has come forth two bring two opposites together and bring peace between them for the greater good of the worlds, but the other that had just appeared…"

The new page showed two figures: one male, and the other female. They had appeared to battle each other and while one rode on top of what looked like a nine-tailed animal with eight other multi-tailed animals. And the other being was riding on top of a cyclopean, ten-tailed creature.

"This is difficult to make out, but it seems a feud has crossed over from one reality, into another. One who is pure of heart, and the other full of hatred and jealousy, will clash for the fate of us all."

This was most disconcerting to them. They knew that the return of the phoenix was imminent, but with the alteration of the page that was already present in the book and the addition of the new one was almost unheard of. The one who had written this book foresaw the future, and had written it accordingly to what he saw, but now something had to have happened recently and would only have some sort of profound effect on the future to change the visions like this.

"What does this mean exactly?" Lei Kung was uncertain what to think of this, while Yu Ti was silent the entire time.

"I don't know…"

* * *

_**Ah, finished at last, this chapter took me a while to write, and I know that it seems like I'm more than likely I rushed this chapter, but I wanted to jump into the cannon of the comics in the next chapter. So, now Hagoromo knows that Naruto is safe with the X-Men and the future has changed a little from the cannon. On Naruto's Susanoo, I wanted his to be a unique from the Uchiha's and Kakashi's Susanoo's and show more of Kaguya's power manifesting even further. If any of you guys think you can draw what I described of his new attire and his Susanoo, I'd love to see it (even though I suck at explaining/describing things).**_

_**Who will Naruto be able to save, who will he not? Who was the masked man that Naruto sensed? Who was the girl that he was fighting from what Jean and the book had foretold? More questions have been raised to what changes Naruto will bring to the Marvel universe. Until the next chapter…who knows :) .**_

_**Make sure to vote on the poll on my profile, review, favorite, and follow, see yah guys later.**_


	4. Chapter 3: Childhood's End Part 1

_**Good to see that people are still enjoying the story and I do intend to keep this going, but I am considering getting a Beta for my story, that and I suck at choreographing fights, so I wanna know if the fight will be any good before I post it on my actual fanfic and not look like an idiot who can't write worth a damn. But this is where the cannon of the comics starts to play out and this is issue #20, 21 &amp; 22 of New X-Men. Not the Grant Morrison series, but the Craig Kyle &amp; Chris Yost series, the whole Academy X was taken off the series' title for whatever reason after the House of M event. Now on with the story! Oh, and I do not own Naruto or any Marvel products nor rights, if I did, I'd be awesome :)**_

* * *

Chapter 3: Childhood's End Part 1

-Dallas, Texas; Two years before M-Day and Naruto's arrival-

William Stryker, in ragged clothes walked out in the stormy night to his former church where he once preached the word of God, and against mutant kind, it was boarded up and was in a state of decay. He made his way inside taking a look around his former house of God. He hoped by coming here, he would gain the answer as to what he should do now, as it seems that his way had been lost.

"Lord! Why?! I served you faithfully…I sacrificed everything I held dear…my wife! My child! All for you lord. All for you…"

He was looking and speaking to a large altar with the crucifix in the center of it high in the air.

"But now I am alone…lost! Forsaken! And when I came to you for guidance….for hope…you gave me nothing! Nothing…"

He pulled a pistol that he had kept in his house for self-defense in case of a break in and began to prime the trigger to pull on himself, he truly believed that without God, he had no purpose in his life after losing those things most dear to him.

"I ask you now, Lord. One more time…give me your strength. Light my way back to you. Please Lord…please…"

As he was pulling the trigger to end his life, a bright light had appeared in front of him in place of the cross. He shielded himself from the light as his eyes began to adjust to hit and he was able to make out a figure within it.

"Thank you, God."

But just as he finally caught sight of what was in front of him, he was hit in the back of the head unconsciously by a man completely covered in a pitch black cloak.

"You'll wake up soon dear 'soon-to-be-again Reverend' to continue on your pathetic existence and path to self-destruction. Oh, how I could just end your miserable life right here, right now and save those that don't deserve the death you inflict on them…but they need to be killed…otherwise some things just may not end up happening…but who knows really? However…that's a chance that I'm not willing to take, but now, I have some things to collect in the meantime, and lie in wait for the time being, since I can't really go back just yet. Ah well…"

The figure soon went to work and once he was finished, he disappeared from sight, as if he were never there.

* * *

-Now-

"Danielle? What...Dani, wait! What's wrong?!"

Scott was baffled as to what was going on, it he had a small idea as to what it was when Dani had stormed out of Emma's office with an angered look on her face and slammed the door shut. He though that the glass would break from the force.

"She has no place here Scott. None of them do."

"And I said we would discuss this!"

Scott was adamant about discussing the future of the non-mutant staff and students since he wanted to honor Xavier's idea of having both mutant and human staff and students attending and teaching at the school. Emma however though that they would be more susceptible to danger from their enemies, now that they saw only 200 mutants left in existence. But they weren't alone as Logan was overhearing the whole argument.

"Without her power she's nothing but a potential victim. Just like the rest of the students."

"I don't care! She's one of us! We don't throw our family..."

"This is a school for the gifted and she no longer fits into that category. Scott I understand how much she means to you, to the students...but don't you see...I'm trying to save her."

"This isn't right."

"Don't be selfish, Scott. Let her go...for her sake."

And with that Logan had heard enough. He needed to make a call to someone that needed to be here, now more than ever. He headed down to the med bay were he had some privacy, as he knew that no way in hell that Emma would ever agree, but he believed that he could count on Slim to help vouch for her. He dialed up her current number as he knew that she changed phones every so often to avoid being tracked down. The phone rang a couple of times as he held it up to his ear, he soon heard the ringing stop and someone breathing on the other end of the line.

"You might as well say hey kid. I can hear you breathing."

_"I miss them..."_

"I know you do, but they aren't there anymore."

_"She was my only friend."_

"I know she was Laura. I know she was...but she's gone now and you being there won't bring her back. Look, you're breaking my heart, but I didn't call to talk about that. You have to come back."

"_No!"_

"You and I had a deal and I kept my end of it. I didn't tell anyone I knew you. I even let you kick my ass, something I don't remember agreeing to, but whatever. And you…" **(AN: Go read X-23: Target X to get some more clarification on this conversation, it is part 2 of her origin story.)**

"_I couldn't!"_

"Yes, you could've. No bullshit! You need to come here and try it."

"_They'll find me there. They found me once before."_

"You're probably right. But do you think Weapon X will ever stop looking for me? Not a damn chance! But that doesn't matter now."

He was looking at the body of the kid named Hydro. He had jumped into the school pool in order to try and prove that he could still breathe underwater and that he didn't lose his mutation like the vast majority of the other students who had. Logan had spotted him in the water and dove in to try and save the kid while he still could, but he was too late.

"The world just got a whole lot scarier and the kids at the school need you."

"_But…"_

"And more importantly, you need them! The only chance you have is here Laura. If you don't come back, you're already dead. Trust me, just come…"

And before he knew it, she just hung up the phone on him midsentence, just as if this conversation were on the ending of an episode for The Sopranos.

"Dammit, she's just as stubborn as I am…guess I'll have to go get her myself instead, hopefully she won't try to take my head off this time unlike last."

* * *

-Saint Michael's Hospital, Chicago; one year ago-

The evening had begun to storm making the roads slippery, wet, and almost in-navigable to get through the crowded streets of downtown. The now reinstated Reverend William Stryker had been gathering followers in the past year, trying to continue his work from before, as he waited patiently for the man that he would save from death and enlist him into his new Purifiers: Dr. Jack Abrams, a very well renowned surgeon of high caliber. And right as it was predicated, the man had exited the main entryway to the hospital, he almost…dare he say…that the good doctor almost looked like the actor Gary Oldman from the Batman films.

"Thy will be done." He checked his watch and stepped out of his limo to save the man as he tried to call out to a taxi.

"Taxi! Taxi!" As he waved to one that had caught his attention, and just as he was about to get into it, out of the cold weather onward to his home, a man in an umbrella had placed his hand on his shoulder and spoke to him.

"Doctor."

"Wha..?"

"Dr. Abrams. A moment of your time please."

"I'm, uh…I'm sorry but I'm in a bit of a rush…" He really wanted to get out of this damn weather and not catch a cold.

"Doctor, do you know who I am?" The man didn't appear to be giving up on getting some of his time, and he wouldn't be anytime soon.

"I uh…I believe so…yes. Yes, I've seen you on TV Reverend. But why do you want to talk to me?"

"It's a matter of life and death. If you just give me a moment, I can explain."

"Hey! You coming, or what?!" The taxi driver was getting inpatient, since he wasn't getting any money as of now, and most taxi drivers barely made a living, if they did, then they wouldn't be doing the job at all.

"Please." Nope, he wasn't giving up one damn bit, so he decided to just indulge the man.

"Thanks but I'll have to catch the next one."

"Idiot!" The driver drove off to find his next meal ticket, since this man wasn't it.

"Okay, what's this all about?"

"It's about you, doctor."

"I don't understand…"

"Tell me, Mr. Abrams…do you believe in God?" And right on cue as the vision he was given, a bus swerved out of control hydroplaning on the surface of the road and crashed right into the taxi that would have been the good doctor's ride home out of the terrible weather.

"How…how did…?" He was honestly astonished by what had happened…the reverend had just inadvertently saved his life.

"Because God believes in you, my son."

On a nearby rooftop out of sight from the streets, the cloaked man stood and watched the event play out.

"It seems everything is still going according to what was originally intended to happen. Good, I'll have to keep an eye on both parties to make sure of it in the meantime."

* * *

-Surge and Forge-

Down in the med bay, Surge had headed down there due to Mr. Summers request. She wasn't exactly sure why but went ahead anyway, as she arrived she saw her friend Forge. He had created her original gloves for her powers and would come by every now and then to sub for one of the other teachers that were out doing X-Men things, whatever they were. But she noticed that he had a new set of gloves in his hands and that she realized why. He had helped her change them out while keeping her discharge steady for a bit.

"How's that feel?"

"Uhhh…good. Really good." She tested them out to get a feel for them. The electricity flowed better than before, in her old gloves.

"They're lighter than your last pair by about half."

"Yeah…thanks Mister uh…forge."

"It looked like you had enough weight to carry already, Miss Ashida." Forge had been the X-Men's primary genius for all of their tech such as integrating Shi'ar tech into their own to improve the school and his own inventions. He had mad Nori's original gloves and was forced to do a rush job due to other things he had on his plate, and that she needed something to regulate her uncontrollable electrical discharges and get off of the drugs that did the same thing for her. He knew she hated them more than anything.

"It's…it's been a messed-up few days. So many students leaving. My friends…no one knows what's going to happen. Nothing's ever going to be the same again, is it?"

"No. I'm afraid dark times are ahead of us…and with so few mutants left, we must do everything we can for our people…or risk losing everything."

She knew he was right. Why? Cause he was the major tech dude that would put Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man put together to shame. If he said something like this, then she had to prepare for what was to come and savor every moment she could until then…maybe she should actually try to be a little nicer to the new guy Naruto.

* * *

-Naruto-

Classes had been canceled for the rest of the day for whatever reason, but the Danger Room was left open to some students to blow off steam if they wanted to, provided that there be a teacher up in the control room. He wanted to try and get with Mr. McCoy and see if he could ask his help in programming his past enemies into the Danger Room for future private practice when no one else could see him, at least until he felt comfortable knowing that he could trust the students with his past.

However Mr. McCoy was working on something's for a while and couldn't be disturbed. So he decided to go see what the other students were doing and caught several of them in the lounge room, with what a large TV with the channel's constantly changing. He overheard some of the students talking about their current predicaments and whatnot.

"What are you going to do, Brian?"

"I don't know Cess…I Don't wanna go home…do you think they'll really make me?"

"Maybe you could fake like you still had your powers. I could just randomly run away from you and stuff."

"Shut up, Santo." She knew he meant well, but he just was to dense to even be sensitive to the matter at hand.

"What? I'm just trying to help. It's not my fault he got, you know…tagged."

"…_bombings in downtown…bzzt…rise in the stocks today…bzzt…appearance by the Fantastic F…bzzt…Wrestling Federation!"_ Just as Santo had stopped hitting the button, a tongue had shot out at the remote and yanked it out of his hand.

"Santo!"

"What?"

"Do you go out of your way to be a jerk?!" Cessily really thought that he once was a stereotypical high school jock before his mutation kicked in, though that did little to change his personality.

"Hey"

"I am not watching wrestling."

"Yeah jerk!"

'I guess Cessily wasn't the only one to get offended by his taste in entertainment.' Naruto thought to himself on the matter.

"**It looks like there's someone that's just as big of an idiot as you are here after all."**

'Shut it furball!' He squinted his eyes and grew a frown at the fox's joke. Just as he had finished with that little thing he heard Josh try to shift the mood to something else to try and stop any violence.

"Did any of the other healers have any luck?"

"You're the last one, Josh, well…along with Jay and Naruto."

"Oh, right."

"I overheard Dr. McCoy say that there was no trace of the X-gene in any of us….there was nothing to be healed."

'Dammit, that leaves Creation of all Things out of the picture, even though I could give them all chakra networks like the old man did, it'd take a lot out of me and it might actually put them into coma's or worse, I don't know….guess the Doc really was right after all, there's no reversing something like this…' His thoughts were interrupted by the TV as Vic had turned the volume up to hear the news. He knew that the world got affected by it, but odds are they didn't know yet…guess they'd find out eventually though.

"_We interrupt this program for breaking news."_

Nori had finally arrived just as the news started and wrapped her arms David, surprising the former mutant.

"Wha...?"

"Hey."

"You scared me Nori."

"You're just lucky haven't moved up to biting…yet."

"Shhh!"

"Get a room"

Naruto just simply rolled his eyes and had wondered if that's how teen couples were back home, since he never saw anyone like that very often considering his line of work of course.

"So what's going on?" She was answered with the news reporter on the TV instead of her friends.

"…_reports coming in from around the world about mysterious, wide-scale disappearances in the mutant population. We take you live to Neal Conan in Mumbai."_

"_X-Corps offices around the globe have suddenly closed their doors, without explanation. There have been massive catastrophe involving all mutant kind, in what some are calling it simply, 'M-Day'. But so far, nothing has been confirmed."_

The other students were surprised by the news, and began asking questions of their own.

"Oh, no…"

"That didn't take long."

"So it's not just here..?"

"Why is this happening?"

"What's an X-Corps?"

"I had a feeling the news would break soon, but not this soon…" Naruto thought that maybe within a weeks' time, but apparently things got around a lot faster here than back in the Elemental Nations, given that they only really had access to messenger hawks to get information around, here it was just one click away with a camera and phone.

"Wait a second, you knew?!" Nori was flabbergasted by the blonde's words.

"Yeah, I knew that this was gonna happen soon, Doctor Strange filled me in on what had happened when he brought me here." Everyone turned their heads with wide eyes to towards the blonde shinobi. And only one question was asked: "You know Doctor Strange?!"

"Yeah he brought me here from Japan and gave me a crash course in English on the way…wwwhhhyyy are you guys looking at me like that?"

Everyone then turned their attention to Santo with scowls on their faces. "Wwwhhhyyy are you guys looking at ME like that?"

"'Some old looking dude in a cape.' You said… are you serious! You don't even know who Doctor Strange is do you? He's literally the most powerful guy in existence!"

'That's rather debatable…' Naruto had thought to himself since he was literally immortal now and had access to all of the Tailed Beasts', the Sage of Six Paths', Madara's, and more than likely, Kaguya's powers and abilities if he could draw on it. He prolly could give the good man a run for his money, along with several other beings of the like.

"**And you could, there are probably only a select few in this reality that could even come a little close to the power you have now. Like that**** hot**** red-headed woman in that white room."**

Naruto had blushed heavily at the fox's last comment, put quickly put it down so no one would notice. After everyone had their little 'Are you stupid?' stare at Santo, they turned their attention back to the newscast.

"…_of the so called 'Mutant Town' in New York City, only to find the streets empty. Once the most visible symbol of the rise of Homo Superior, Mutant Town's residents are now either in hiding or have disappeared. There has been no comment from the super hero community regarding this matter, nor from the Xavier Institute where four massive Sentinels have been stationed for several days now. The White House has so far refused to address this issue, which adds fuel to the growing fuel to the growing rumors of an apparent crisis. In a related story, the Reverend William Stryker, once well known for his condemnation of mutants, held a press conference just days before news of the mutant disappearances broke."_

"_God will give the world a sign, one that I am destined the faithful will be watching. Once given, we must all look to the results of this grand miracle and the path to righteousness."_ Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man speaking out about his 'vision', and began to get a bad feeling about him already.

"_The Reverend Stryker was interviewed this morning at his ministry…"_

"_After the incident with the X-Men at Madison Square Garden, you were imprisoned…then thought to have died in transport. Can you explain what happened?"_

"_My life was spared by God."_

"_Your sentence for murder and conspiracy was commuted by the governor of New York, an act which many have condemned. How do you respond?"_

"_Everything in this life happens according to the Lord's Plan."_

"_You made a statement weeks ago. A prediction that there would be a 'world-wide miracle'. And over the past two years, you've made many predictions…most recently, the earthquake in Central America, and an airline disaster in Colorado…how do you explain this?"_

"_When God spared my life, he also gave me a __gift__, the gift of foresight. It is my mission to ensure that his miracles are no longer squandered"_

"_Your number of followers grows every day, and those __within your church call you a prophet and a savior. But many still see you as a racist and a bigot. How do you respond to those people?"_

_"The path to Eden is paved with swords and serpents, only the chosen will survive the journey. I am not here to complain about the obstacles and difficulties that face me on this trek, but rather to light the way for the Lord's children. My message is simple...God has taken the first step, now we must take the next."_

"He's extremely dangerous..." Naruto was reminded of a certain Akatsuki member that killed in the name of his god and religion.

"What makes you say that?" David wanted his input since he thought that the Reverend had basically told that all mutants should burn at the stake.

"Back in Japan, around where I come from, there was this guy that would go on a killing spree every now and then in the name of his god: Jashin, I think that was its name was…and would do some sort of prayer before and after killing someone. And he enjoyed every damn bit of it. But this guy...he's doing a pretty good job of hiding his bloodlust with his words and behinds his little cult followers here. He isn't speaking for God, he's speaking for himself, and I bet you if anything, someone either told him those things would happen, or he orchestrated those disasters just to seem like a prophet. I wouldn't be surprised if it was both." He had a deep scowl across his face, he loathed people that would hide behind religion in order to justify killing someone, that was one of the reasons he went with Team 10 to track down the Akatsuki members that had killed…no, murdered Asuma-sensei for the bounty on his head, and to their own enjoyment. But he knew that it wasn't his place to take down Hidan, that honor belonged to Shikamaru, so he settled for taking out his partner, Kakuzu instead.

"Dude, aren't you taking this a little too serious?" Santo had said, but everyone else had a feeling that Naruto was right about the onscreen Reverend.

"Serious? Yes. Too serious? No, I'm just being realistic about this guy, and I doubt that this is gonna be the last we're gonna here from him. If anything...he'll lead some kind of hate event right on our doorstep just to gain more ground and idiotic followers. Or worse..." Now everyone began thinking the exact same thing about the hate monger.

"What if it was a miracle?" Jay's opinion left the room silent, several cold glares locking onto the red head.

Cessily looked downright disturbed. "Miracle? You really think God decided to cripple mutants around the world? Oh, with the exception of us!?" she asked heatedly.

"Nice one, God," Santo retorted in a sarcastic manner.

"This guy is nuts, Jay," added Josh. "I mean like, cult nuts 'don't drink the Kool-Aid' crazy."

"Sorry, Jay, but I really don't think that you're asking the right nor a good question." Naruto had tried to get Jay off this train of thought, but he clearly didn't register it.

"Look, can any of you honestly say that even for a moment, you didn't wish you'd lost your powers, too? That you didn't want to be normal? Maybe there was a reason we weren't chosen." Now that was a hell of a blow down low.

"If this was such a beautiful damn miracle, then where's Jeffrey Garrett?" Noriko jumped in. She was nearing pissed off mode due to his choice of words. "He's dead, Jay! Hydro's dead, too. And who knows how many more mutants are out there dead or dying right now?" She was just itching for him to say something else to give her a reason to knock him out on his ass, it David had got in between them to stop the two from getting into a fight; more than likely with Nori the winner of it, given her power that is.

"Okay. Everybody take a breath and calm down. No one knows why this happened." Looking to Nori, eyes pleading for her to calm down, "And right now we need to stick together, not attack each other."

"What do you mean 'we' human?" Heads turned to see Julian, dressed in his team uniform, leaning against the doorframe, a smug smirk was on his face. "I know it's hard to tell with you, but last time I checked, 'you' just became a part of 'them'."

'Wow…just wow…I know that Kiba could be a jerk sometimes, but at least he knew better than to say the wrong things at the wrong times, and wasn't a major asshole like Julian. This guy literally has no filter for his words.' Naruto thought to himself….maaaaybe he could make some sort of seal for Julian's jackass-iness? Hell if he knew…

"What the Hell is your problem, Keller?" Noriko snarled.

"Nori, it's okay…"

"No, it's not!"

Julian's smirk turned into a small smile, though still looking rather arrogant. "It's okay, because David knows that when we're all up against the wall, he'll be free and clear." It seems like low blows would be traded today. "Did he tell you about his little phone call with Harvard, yet?"

Noriko's anger had immediately turned to shock as she looked to her boyfriend. "What?"

"Nori, I…"

"It's better this way, Ashida. He doesn't belong here or with you…not anymore."

"And why is that, Julian?" He seemed to falter at Sofia's question. She had apparently come into the room sometime during his little antihuman debacle, and had heard every word that came out of his mouth. "Please, tell me. Why is it 'better', Julian? Because David is human now? Are humans not worthy of being loved in your eyes?" She too had lost her powers, and would be sent home soon.

"Sofia… It's not like that."

"You used to call me 'beautiful'. Am I less so now?"

"I…" His mind just couldn't answer. He wanted to say something to make her stay, but the words weren't coming to him.

Turning, she walked away. "Just stop, Julian. You're making fools of both of us."

Julian finally working well enough to register that she was leaving, the room and most likely the mansion, he called out to her. "Sofia, wait!"

But Noriko was far from finished with their conversation, and intended to do just that.

"We're not finished Keller!" She grabbed his hand charging it up with her electricity, with Julian putting up his telekinetics to counter said charge, and hoisting up into the air ready to bear down on her.

"You just picked the worst time to mess with me, little girl."

Naruto was going to jump in and throw them to opposite sides of the room and give them a good fearful lecture in not raising a hand to a comrade, but he was stopped by a new voice that had entered the room, with all heads turning its way to see Logan and another person beside him.

"Am I interrupting something? No? Good. This is Laura, my sister. She's a genetic clone created from my DNA and...you know what? It doesn't matter. The bottom line is, she has my claws and, yes, she could kill you if she wanted...well 'cept maybe you kid." He glanced momentarily at Naruto after looking at the 'full' file of the kid's powers. "So, don't make her want to. Consider yourselves introduced."

And with Logan had left it at that. But not before turning around looking at Naruto. "Oh, and before I go, Summers said he wanted you to head to his office for bit." He then turned his attention to the bickering duo. "And for the record, my money's on Nori."

"Let it go, Nori. He's not worth it."

"Can't I kill him just a little?"

"You wish, Gloves."

"Come on, Guys. I know a better way of blowing off steam."

"I'll see you later tough guy."

"Looking forward to it."

They still wanted to duke it out even after getting even tempered...a little bit. And with that everyone else started to head back to their rooms seeing as how the mood had been killed.

"Where are you going Cess?"

"Julian...I love you and all, but it's time for us to grow up."

Once more, Naruto was amazed at Julian's social skills and his ego. He wasn't as smooth as he thought he was.

"What are you looking at, clone?" the hot headed kid had snapped.

Naruto had wacked the teen upside his head. "Don't be an ass, Julian." Looking to the newly introduced Laura, "Don't mind him, while the stick up his ass seems normal enough for him, he's in a drama queen mood today." he said in a friendly tone. Julian glared darkly at him. The dark-haired girl answered him with a blank look, not knowing how to react to that. "The name's Naruto." he said cheerily before heading off to Mr. Summers' office.

* * *

-Cyclops &amp; Emma Frost-

"Even I have my limits. Absolutely not!" Scott remained immobile, while Emma had exclaimed in anger and surprise, slamming her fists on the desk. He knew this was coming. "It took time, but I've finally pierced X-23's mental shields. Death is all she knows! She's assassinated hundreds without remorse. She even killed her own mother."

Scott let her talk. When she stopped, he just simply said what he felt needed to be said.

"Logan vouches for her."

"That doesn't exactly help your case, Scott. With everything he's done recently, I don't think he should be around the kids, either." He raised his voice only when she started talking nonsense.

"Logan is an X-Man, Emma. He's saved both our lives, time and time again. He vouches for her. Just like Professor Xavier vouched for you. That's good enough for me."

"Scott, the children have enough dangers facing them outside the walls of this school. The last thing we need to do is bring more inside."

"Well, if the point is danger, Naruto is a lot more dangerous than X-23, or any of us for that matter. But you didn't complain when we took him in when Stephen brought him to us, did you?" He was trying to counter her argument when they had just taken in someone also trained from a very young age to kill and had 10 omnipresent beings of power inside him ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice, and end not just the world, but all life within their reality.

"Because he knows the difference between right and wrong, Scott. And because I saw inside his mind, we both did. He's only killed because of how his society works, he knows that things are different here, and that the way we do things are what he strives for! He took a beating to half of his body simply because he didn't want to sell out someone that was once his best friend to a rival nation that wanted his head for committing murder and kidnapping the brother of their leader. He wouldn't take revenge on the one who had killed his godfather! The only true family he had left!" She knew that he was a kind person at heart, and would be willing to lay down his life for the sakes of others. But she believed that X-23 was merely a weapon. Nothing more, nothing less.

Gritting his teeth, he stood in a less than welcoming, becoming rather hostile pose, pointing what seemed like an accusing finger. "Emma, I stood by you when you let Danielle go and I'm willing to stand by this new training system, but…" he turned to leave.

Something turned in the White Queen. Something about the way he was regarding her. Just maybe she had gone a little too far. "Scott..."

Looking back, his ruby-lensed visor flashed. "Emma, that's enough! X23 stays! End of discussion! Now I need to go make an introduction, I'm sure Rachel can help make his stay here more comfortable and show him around town." And with that, Scott had left Emma's office heading towards his.

Emma frowned. She hated losing arguments, but she also hated bearing wrath from someone she loved. The next few nights were no doubt going to be rather awkward with several of them to be nothing but silence. 'Wait...she? He? Is Scott really trying to play matchmaker for a bit?' She smiled at the thought...naaah, he was rather the serious type when it came to stuff like this. She doubted he really was doing it, Hank was more the romantic than Scott.

* * *

-Naruto-

Naruto wasn't sure why Mr. Summers wanted to see him. Did he do something wrong already? Or was it something else? Whatever the case, best not to keep the man waiting as he thought to himself, while stepping inside the office.

"Mr. Summers, Logan said you wanted to see me for something?"

"Yes actually, I wanted to know how you've been doing the past two days. I know that it's not easy adjusting to this whole thing, being stuck in some foreign place with no way home. But you should know, you're not the only one out of place here."

Naruto's eyes had widened at that last sentence. He never thought that someone else was stuck here like he was. How did they get here? What was their home like? He heard the door open behind him and turned around to see a girl more than likely maybe about a couple of years older than him. She had bright green eyes, and was about his height, and fiery red hair. That's what caught his attention. He wondered if she was somehow related to the woman back in the white room.

"You wanted to see me Scott?"

"Yeah, thanks for coming by Rachel. Naruto this is Rachel Grey. Rachel, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze." He gestured between the two of them. "I'd thought that you might want to show Naruto around town and whatnot, since he's not from around here like yourself before you head to the reunion."

Rachel was a little surprised, she herself had become stranded in this past alternate timeline, so she wondered where he had come from, judging from his appearance and name. What had really caught her attention were the whisker marks on his cheeks, they reminded her of her own 'hound' tattoo's that she masked psionically from other people to hide her shame. Was he also used as a hound or something? No, his eyes were too cheerful looking to be a former hound like herself. But she couldn't read his mind at all, which was really strange, and she doubted that he was a telepath like herself otherwise he'd be talking back to her to stay out of his head.

"Yo, nice to meet you Rachel!"

Naruto had jumped out of the seat in front of the desk and put his hand out in a fist bumping gesture towards her. She was really surprised a bit by his speed and didn't even notice him move from it until he appeared in front of her mouth had shown that she was rather neutral before, but had been replaced with that of a smile when he himself.

"Hey, what's up Naruto." She returned the fist bump.

Scott had smiled at the interaction between the two of them. He knew that the two of them would get along rather nicely, he had heard some shouting outside that came from Foley and turned to see Dani saying goodbye to her students.

"Thanks for stopping by Rachel, I have to go take care something's in the meantime, let me know how things go later tonight."

* * *

-Outside-

"They fired you?!" The whole team, just couldn't believe that their advisor, their squad teacher that they had been training and bonding with for almost a year was about to leave the school, and quite possibly for good.

"Dani, were you even going to tell us?"

"Look, I don't want it to be this way, either. This is my home. I don't want to leave…but if I'm going to be of any use at all, it's going to be outside these walls."

"But Dani…you're my guardian! What happens to the squad?" Josh really had no one else to call family other than Dani when she had basically adopted him.

"You'll be ok, Josh. Shan is still here, and Amara will be back soon. You can trust them. Look I just…just can't be here. Not right now. Sofia…I'm so sorry." Dani was beginning to shed tears as she kept talking to her former students. She tried to keep as composed as she could, but the tears just kept on coming as Sofia had hugged her and had doing so in return.

"Me, too."

"Agent Pierce is here to pick me up, but I want you guys to remember one thing…trust yourselves. Trust each other…because sometimes that's all you've got." She wanted to make sure she gave one last bit of advice and wisdom to her students that she herself had learned whilst still an X-Man.

"Excellent advice. Now, I know this is hard children, but we need to let Danielle go."

"Goodbye." The rest of the students from the Danger cave including the Hellions and Laura had also followed to see if Dani's leaving was true or not. As Dani left the school grounds, the other students had thought it best to head back inside to relax for a bit in their rooms

"And just where do you think you're going?" She held up her hand in a stopping manner to Laura, trying to get rid of her again.

"Emma, that's enough. Need I remind you of our conversation regarding Laura?"

"No."

"Good. Now please go inside." Scott then turned his attention to Laura.

"Hard to believe that she used to be a super-villain, isn't it? Well, let's find you a place to sleep."

* * *

-Naruto &amp; Rachel-

Rachel told him she'd be taking him into town for a bit to show him around. "What is that?" Naruto asked, pointing to the one of the many large objects in the garage. "I saw a lot of them in that town where the Doc found me."

"It's called a car. You don't have them in your world?" Naruto shook his head.

"No. I mean, civilians and nobles use horses and sometimes trains, but I didn't need either. I can usually cover distances fast enough on foot." Rachel was a little intrigued at that small fact. Did he have super speed like Northstar and Quicksilver? They were heading into the car, but they had caught another voice coming from the door revealing Nori in her casual clothes with a folded up apron in one hand.

"Hey guys. You heading into town? I need a ride real quick to work, and I'm still trying to figure out how these new gloves work, so i can't run like I usually can."

"Sure, we were heading there first anyway, Scott asked me to show Naruto around town before I head to the reunion."

"Sweet thanks."

Rachel and Nori had strapped themselves in, while Naruto was still trying to fiddle with the buckle giving Nori a rather amused and befuddled look.

"Grrr...how do you guys do this thing here?"

Rachel decided to just use her telekinesis to do it for him, showing him how to do it properly.

"Ohhhh, ok then...stupid simple straps." He mumbled that last bit to himself, but the girls still overheard him and chuckled to themselves.

"Hey it's not funny! I grew up isolated from these type of things, ok!"

After finally getting into town, they arrived at the mall and followed Nori to the coffee shop that she worked at. He'd been to a mall in the capital with Pervy Sage, but even that was nothing like this. And soon enough he was able to ignore the fumes of the hundreds of cars that make you nauseous which had been ruining the experience. It really hurt riding behind what Nori had dubbed an 'eighteen wheeler'. He had thought the fumes would kill him.

"So, late shift I take it?" Rachel was already in line for her coffee and if Naruto wanted anything.

She sighed. "Yeah, I don't get off until closing, that and it's someone else's shift and I needed to get away from the school for a few hours, so you want the usual?" she asked, knowing the she preferred her coffee with sugar in it, sometimes to just enjoy the flavor. Turning her head a bit to see Naruto, "What about you blondie?" He frowned and twitched at the nickname, but ignored it nonetheless. Looking at the menu, his eyes focused on one thing.

"What's espresso?" he asked innocently enough. Both Rachel and Noriko felt a chill go down their spines.

* * *

So far, the ninja had had three cups of coffee with three shots of espresso in ea h one of them. He had a rather bored expression on his face the entire time he gupled them down. "No fucking way." Noriko whispered in disbelief.

"Watch your language." Corrected a still staring Rachel.

"I don't get what's the big deal, what's supposed to happen?"

"Technically you're supposed to have wide bloodshot eyes, twitching fingers and a fast paced speech pattern and then you crash in an hour or so."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the supposed effects espresso would give someone.

"Well thanks for the small discount Nori."

"No prob Rachel, so why are you out with him? It's not a date is it?" She hoped that he didn't just ask her out to a date right after coming here. Plus he seemed a little young than her too.

"Scott asked me to show him around town for a bit before I head to the family reunion later tonight."

"Ahhh...alrighty then, I'll leave you to your babysitting then.

"Hey!" They both shouted in unison. Getting surprised looks from each other. Awkward...Nori got a laugh out of that one for sure.

"We should get going, see you back at the school Nori."

Rachel had left some extra money for Nori's tip. The two friends then began to hang out and chat around town until they finally came to a bench in the nearby park, where it looked like no one else was around to hear their conversation.

"So how exactly did you get here? In this reality I mean." She was curious about both how and why he came here.

Naruto looked down in remembrance and sadness, something Rachel had immediately saw.

"I actually got here by accident. I was...in a war back home. A man had tried to gain power to put the world into an infinite illusion by binding with what was considered to be the most powerful creature in our history. We had managed to stop him for a bit, but in the end, he succeeded. But only then we had to deal with an even more powerful enemy, literally a primordial god, someone with power that seemed so far out of reach and belief. I, my two best friends and my sensei were able to avoid the Infinite Tsukuyomi, the illusion that it was called. We were able to beat her also, but now she's sealed up inside me, and now my eyes are like this because of her." She saw what they had had, calm and collected, but also sorrow in them. But she also saw that they also contained kindness and sincerity, and she also believed that they could show rage and anger at other times. They were captivating to say the least.

Naruto expression then changed to that of happiness, strength and determination as he stood up out of his spot on the bench. "But, I can take comfort in knowing that they broke the Infinite Tsukuyomi back home when I shot them through the tear home, and that everyone's rebuilding things after the war. And even though I may not be able to return home, I can make a new life here. I won't be able to become the Hokage and protecting the village and friends like I always dreamed about, but now, I think I have a new dream..."

"And what's that?"

His smile became even bigger than what it was before. "To become the greatest X-Man ever, and to make peace and coexistence between mutants and humans a reality! No matter how long or how hard it takes to get there, I'll do it dattebayo!" He had turned his left hand into a thumbs up gesture in front of her. His face held an expression that was filled with excitement and determination, bit it quickly turned to one that of embarrassment and he covered his mouth with his hands, cursing under his breath about getting something from his mother.

Rachel was wide eyed at his declaration as she sensed no lie about what he wanted. Somehow, she believed that he would make the world a better place, and his dream a reality, he was almost like a teenage combination of Xavier and her mother. She smiled sincerely at him, stood up alongside Naruto and gave him a warm hug.

He was seriously wanting to yell at his mom if he could for passing on the whole verbal tic thing, but as he was doing so, Rachel had just simply hugged him, much to his surprise. He wasn't used to this kind of thing, it weirded him out a bit. Did he say something wrong or what? He didn't know how to deal with women, as that was more Pervy Sage's forte, even though he told Naruto that he was a natural charmer.

"You know, I don't have to read your mind to know that you're not lying. You and I, we're not like the rest of the others, they don't know what it's like to be displaced out of reality. I came here for a reason, and I think you did too, and from what I've seen and experienced, there are no accidents in history."

Naruto had thought about that for a bit, and began to wonder if Hagoromo had trusted him more than Sasuke to seal away Kaguya, and maybe somehow he sent him here to help these people. He'd have to ponder this later, as he was now curious about how Rachel's reality was.

"Wait, so where did you come from exactly? Was it like this one? Or something else entirely like my own?"

Rachel had a pained expression on her face, remembering all the people she had lost back in her home reality, she wished she could've brought them with her, but she was unable to save them from the hell of the reality and Naruto caught on immediately, his face went to that of panic and was waving his arms in front of his face at a fast rate and his eyes going wide and turned white almost growing out of the sockets, along with very visible beads of sweat going down his face. Rachel saw this and had wondered how that was even possible.

"Oh, crap! I-I'm sorry 'bout that! I didn't mean to upset you or anything! We-we can talk about something else...hehehe...please don't hit me in the face."

Rachel had put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down, before he started to make a scene in public, effectively calming him.

"Hey, hey. It's alright, it's just...my reality isn't the best one there is, but since you told me how you got here, I'll tell you how I got here..."

* * *

-The Institute-

Allaabu akbar. Allaabu akbar. Allaabu akbar. Allaabu akbar" Alone in her room, Sooraya was performing her evening prayers like every night. "Ash'hadu an laa ilaaha allallaah. Ash'ha-" But the ssilence that she had was broken by a pair of sharp taps to her door. Soon the door oopens with the headmaster stepping just over the entryway.

"I'm sorry, Sooraya. I didn't mean to interrupt." He does his best to apologize to the student.

But she felt no ill will towards him for the interuption in her prayers "How may I help you, Mister Summers?"

He had on a kind smile on, when he could allow it. "After Nori requested to room alone, I thought you might like some company…" He waited for a negative reaction before he continued. "And, well, Laura needs a roommate, someone who wouldn't mind showing her around," thus explaining the presence of the uncomfortable looking young woman behind him.

Bowing her head in acceptance, "I would be honored."

Ushering the silent girl/former assassin in, he bid them both a good night before leaving.

"You are Sunni." More of a statement of fact, rather than a question of what, and was one of the few times she had actually spoken since arriving.

Sooraya was surprised to hear that someone recognized her distinct way of worshiping Allah. "I-yes…yes forgive me, I did not realize you spoke. You are familiar with my home?"

"Yes. I have killed in Afghanistan." That was putting it rather bluntly. This was going to be an awkward first night indeed...

* * *

-Elsewhere in the Institute-

"Come one Sofia...just talk to me! You've been avoiding me for days...please come out." Julian had been at Sofia's door for the past few minutes trying to make up for the things he said back in the rec room.

"Julian please...just go away!" She was leaning up against the door hoping that he wouldn't break it down in the case she didn't. So far it hadn't escalated that far yet.

"Look, I know you're hurting beautiful...I want to help. Please...let me help." He slumped up against the door sitting down facing back out to the hallway. He saw his teammate Cessily out of his peripherals walking towards him.

"Julian...have you seen Kevin around?" She noticed that he wasn't around after they all left the Danger Cave to see Danielle off.

"I'm a little busy right now, Cess."

"Yeah, well Kevin's missing and I thought you might want to help me find him."

"He's a big boy, Cess. He'll get over this." He really hated dissing his friends, but he was too caught up with trying to apologize to Sofia.

"Nice way to look after your friends Julian."

"Cess don't...hey, I'm sorry...Cess, come back! Cess!"

Sofia had been packing the last several hours due to losing her powers, and being sent home. She'd had thought about leaving a note for Julian in her room when she left apologizing for not telling him she was leaving, but she felt that it was best if no one else but the staff knew since anti-mutant groups and enemies of the X-Men were more than likely already making plans to hit the school.

* * *

-Naruto-

Wow, and he thought he heard it all. After hearing Rachel's story, he felt that he had to return her hug, but he almost crushed her lungs in the process. Apologizing for suffocating her, she said that it was alright and she was used to things like that, but told him to ask before hugging someone like that since not every girl was as nice as she was. They drove back to the Institute to drop off Naruto since he was still a student and she had a family reunion to get too.

"Hey let me know how everything goes, ok Rachel. Oh, and before I forget, bump fists with me real quick."

"Alrighty then." She chuckled a bit before complying.

As they fist bumped she noticed a strange marking from on the back of her palm begin to take shape and form; her eyes grew wide from the astonishment, she had known no one else that could possibly do something like this, save maybe Dr. Strange, but even then she had never seen him do it.

"It's a teleportation marker for me, if you ever need any help, just focus a little on it, and I'll be there in a flash, literally. And don't worry about it having a time limit on it or anything, a Flying Raijin seal never disappears from where it was placed, only I can actually make it vanish from anyone or anything it's on." He had a smile on his face the entire time he explained the purpose to her, he hadn't felt this happy in a while, not since he finally started bonding with his teammates back home.

She was perplexed by what he had done, but she was thankful for the 'gift' that he had inscribed on her, she looked at it for a bit to see that it had actually disappeared like it was never even there.

"Thanks for that, but why did you give it to me?" She was still curious why he had done it though, but having a friend come to her aid in a fight within a second would be really helpful.

"Well, no one else really knows how it feels to be out of place like you do. And it made me feel a little better about being here and whatnot to know that I'm not alone. So in a way you're my new best friend now, I hope you don't mind me saying that..." He rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment and chuckled a little to himself.

"No biggie, I'll talk to you later Naruto, good night."

She waved to Naruto cheerily as she drove off back into the city to see her mother's family. She couldn't help but think that he had some sort of friendly atmosphere that people were drawn to, and that he could be trusted with anything, as she found herself doing as such.

She finally arrived at her grandparents' house and was nervous as hell. Seeing as she was from an alternate reality and not from this one, she believed that they would reject her due to her status, but Scott and Emma had introduced her to mother's parents for Christmas before the whole House of M thing and they were pleased to meet her, and invited her to their family reunion coming up soon, and she was excited and nervous about it.

'Ok Rachel, you can do this...'

She knocked on the door a bit, and saw that her grandfather Dr. John Grey answer the door with happiness and welcomed her in introducing her to the rest of the family.

Unbeknownst to the Grey family, they were being watched by the masked man from a nearby tree.

"So...this is the night of the Grey family massacre...I could step in, after all...no one should face the coming end alone." He chuckled with dark humor and stood up from the tree reaching into his sleeve, he pulled out four separate objects that were labeled with kanji's and threw them into the air, each one landing on the edge of the Grey house and began to light up a bit, then the man made several hand signs and brought them together.

"Four Corners Protective Barrier." **(AN: This was something I just made up on the fly, I'm not sure if it's really cannon.)**

"Now that they can't hear, see, smell and Rachel can't sense outer minds that will be coming to the area. I better get ready for them."

The man stood out on top of the tree and watched the sky for the assassin's meant to come for the Grey's. The wait was not a long one. He then eyed the aliens whom in turn where staring him down for a few minutes, until the Skrull had spoken up.

"Who are you?! And do you dare stand against us?!"

"My name is of no importance, however...I do stand against you; this shouldn't take too long..."

"Then you will die along with the Starchylde and her family line as well, for we are the Shi'ar Death Commandos!"

The alien assassins charged at the man to kill him, while he stood still the whole time not worrying about a thing.

* * *

-Naruto-

**"I'm surprised that you didn't make a move on that girl kit, what gives?"**

"Seriously! What's wrong with you! I can't make a move on a girl that I just met! That and she probably already has a guy in her life and not just that, she's also probably older than me! I'd look like a complete idiot if I asked her out!"

**"You still are an idiot, hehehehe. But seriously you deserve some happiness after all the crap you've been through. Or are you still hoping that you'll get home and finally get with that pinkette? Did you ever tell her how you felt about her, hmm? You do remember what your mother told you before she died right?"**

Naruto gained a look of self-disappointment and sadness for a bit, and thought back to his mother's last few words; specifically that of what she told him about women.

_"And as for women...well I'm a woman so I don't know what to say, but there are only men and women in this world, and you'll want a girlfriend someday...just try not to pick a weird one...try to find someone like your mother..."_

**"Plus she's a red head, so that's one thing down, now you just gotta see if she gets as pissed off as Kushina does as easily!"**

"Yeeeaaahhh...I'm not gonna test that out of curiosity since I like being alive and not drooling like an idiot for weeks on end." He imagined Rachel with her short hair flailing about like her mothers with an angry look on her face. He shuddered at the thought of Rachel using her telepathy to lobotomize him.

Kurama laughed at Naruto's explanation, he thought that he really should find a girl and settle down, he deserved it since he no longer had any of his friends from home.

He went back to his room to retire for the night, he tried to get back into the white room, but he couldn't for whatever reason. Maybe she was blocking him out for some reason, she prolly didn't like that someone would get in to what she considered her 'home' or whatever it was called, but as he was finishing up with his meditation, he felt a small surge of chakra back over near the city for a few minutes, but it dissipated moments later. What the hell was going on? This is the second time it's occurred since he's arrived here. He'd have to talk to Mr. Summers about tracking down the user tomorrow, should he prove to be an enemy to him.

* * *

-Outside the Grey family household-

The street was littered with craters and soaked in blood in all manner of colors. The man in the cloak was spotless and was holding the severed bloody head of Black Cloak, the leader of the Shi'ar Death Commandos, in one hand and had his other hand around the throat of Warshot, applying pressure around his neck to the point of breaking it entirely. Hypernova had her intestines' strung out and was barely clinging to life coughing up blood. There was no sign of SeGa as he most likely dissipated, and Devo's body was nailed to a tree by a large combat knife going thru his heart. The other members of the death squad were severely injured as they soon fled, but not before giving a glance to the man simply stating: 'This isn't over...'

"Hmm, I really need to clean this little mess up before they all begin to leave...and there's just one insect left to deal with."

He dropped Warshot's body and walked over to Hypernova, he stared at her for a bit before bringing his foot down on her smashing her skull and effectively killing her then and there on the spot.

"I can still use these however." As he looked to each of the dead bodies.

He looked around and began to clean up and repair the damage done to the neighborhood, and releasing the barrier around the house. He watched the family through the window enjoy their dinner, and at the end they all welcomed Rachel in a group hug and she cried tears of joy.

"Enjoy it all...while you still can..."

The man then disappeared into the night.

* * *

_**Wow, this one took me some time to write since the Childhood's End arc takes place over the course of two weeks and the issues swap between time frames. Now Naruto has met Rachel, and I really hope that I got it right. To me the two of them would be great friends and seeing as how both of them are stuck in a reality that's not of their own. Now I wasn't exactly too sure when the End of Grey arc took place, but I do know that it took place after House of M, and it made me sad that Jean and Rachel had lost their family due to the Shi'ar being so fearful of there being another Phoenix host from the Grey family.**_

_**I originally wanted to write Naruto as the one to save the family, but I unfortunately don't own the collected edition of the arc to make sure to write it out properly, so I decided to have the cloaked/masked man to be the one to do it. Why? Can't really say why…for now. But next chapter will have Naruto help out with the Stamford tragedy, a certain Avenger will be sticking his nose where it shouldn't be, and the Childhood's End arc will finally come to an end. Thanks for reading this story and I hope many of you will continue to favorite, follow, and review it. And don't forget to vote on the poll posted on my profile. Until next time :)**_

_**P.S. I will have Naruto return back to his world later in the future,more than likely post AvX, and the story arcs will be that of the Shippuden films as they were never originally cannon with the exception of The Last, and I will be writing chapter about the aftermath of the war in the form of a funeral/memorial in a later chapter, so don't worry about Naruto not being able to return home for a bit. And also, I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on what Naruto's X-Man codename should be. I already have one in mind, but I'd like to hear other names as well. Thank you :)  
**_


	5. Chapter 4: Childhood's End Part 2

_**Alrighty then, the final part of Childhood's End will be here in the final chapter and the beginning of Crusade will start in the next one. And to make a note here, Naruto will not be involved with Civil War, just helping clean up Stamford with the rest of the X-Men. Again, I own nothing of Naruto nor Marvel rights and products. This chapter contains a bit of Civil War #1 and New X-Men #23.**_

* * *

Chapter 4: Childhood's End Part 2

* * *

-Earlier Today-

"Okay, how many super-villains are we talking here, Speedball?"

"Three. No, wait." He got a better look at the area. "I think I see Coldheart in the backyard emptying the trash." He did the easy math in his head no sweat. "That's four of 'em in total, and all four are on the FBI's most-wanted list, right?"

"Cobalt-Man, Coldheart, Speedfreek, Nitro…yup. They all broke out of Ryker's three months back, and all of them have records as long as your arm. Coldheart fought Spider-Man a couple of times, and—get this—Speedfreek almost took down The Hulk."

"He what?!" Night Thrasher had the most natural reaction. If anyone who could go toe to toe with the green giant and come out of it alive was of a high skill level, but almost taking him down…Microbe voiced the next natural line of thought.

"These guys are totally out of our league, man. No way in hell should we be going in there!" And he was right. His foster dad agreed with him as well, but they had no choice but to listen to the voice of the leader: Speedball. The leader is usually the charismatic one. He's the one who makes the decisions. But the problem with Speedball, was that he didn't make them based off strategy, tactics and common sense, unlike other leaders like Cyclops or Captain America. No, he made them based off on how many viewers he could get and how big his check would get after each episode.

"But think about the ratings, Microbe. This could be the best episode of the entire second season." And with that, Speedball made the decision that he would come to regret for the rest of his life for the craving of TV ratings. They engaged S-Rank villains and began their throwing their fists, kicks and insults.

"Could we cut out the part where she called me the Bondage Queen?"

"Oh, yeah. Because Night Thrasher sounds so much straighter." He really loved his foster father, but really...perhaps Bondage Queen would have been a better choice, given his costume. Regardless of that though. He needed to focus on the enemy whose armor is rusting his feet. "Got my bacterial beasties rusting Cobalt Man if anyone wants to track down that old Captain Marvel villain."

"Not to worry, Microbe." They were done with Coldheart. She was the one who could get to Nitro quicker than the others, so she took flight. In a matter of seconds, she was above him. "I'm on it." Her fists shot straight into his back, hammering his face right into a school bus. Ouch...that was going to leave at the very least a broken nose.

"On your feet, Nitro. And don't try any of your stupid explosions because that's only going to make me hit you harder."

The New Warriors were rather untrained and undisciplined. Because they had engaged ruthless criminals with decade's worth more experience than them.

"Namorita, right? Aren't you the Sub-Mariner's cousin or something?" Nitro didn't get back up, he didn't bother, seeing as how this whole town was about to go, and he could care less if his 'partners' got caught in as collateral. That, and the girl sure could hit, he'd have to someone to get his nose looked at. "Well, I'm afraid we're not the bargain basement losers you guys are used to, baby…"

He honestly thought that she was a complete idiot on the other hand. Why? It was simple really...her team had engaged them in the middle of a highly populated zone...near a school...shouldn't they have thought this through?

"You're playing with the big boys, now." His eyes began to glow an ominous yellow and white.

Namorita should have knocked him out while he was down. Not give him a few seconds of fighting for the sake of ratings. A few seconds were all that he needed, soon, everything became nothing but a bright light, enveloping the town in the blast of Nitro.

* * *

-Now-

The air was thick with death. He had felt it before in the war. The X-Men had been called in to help clean up the mess of what was thought to be a small skirmish between some small-time heroes and a baddie or two, turned out to be a disaster.

Naruto had been pulled out of his room by Rachel to help clean things up and with search and rescue if anyone even survived the explosion caused by the one they had dubbed 'Nitro'.

She led him down to the hangar where the blackbird was ready to take off with the rest of the senior X-Men. He had grabbed his gear from the day before along with the Gunbai, and stepped up the platform into the jet.

He saw as Rachel had strapped herself in and had done the same, but he still had a little trouble getting buckled in.

It was cool as how the hangar doors were actually the basketball court outside the school. His eyes grew wide with awe and excitement as the X-Jet rose into the air and tool off to their destination.

"Here, this if for you. It'll let people know that you're with us. Since you already have a uniform in a way, this'll complete it."

Scott had handed him a belt lined with several pouches for equipment and had a large red x in the center with white triangles outlining it. It went with his dad's trench jacket rather nicely.

"Also as a precaution, since there are going to be a lot of eyes out there, I want you to stick to using your clones, healing, and enhanced strength and speed for the time being. No need to draw any unnecessary attention to us right now."

Naruto nodded in response. He didn't want anyone on his heels and trying to get a better 'look' at him.

"Rachel, Naruto, I want the two of you to stick together and help out wherever you're needed. For now, your alias will be Ronin while in the field Naruto."

"Alright Scott." Rachel nodded in response.

"No problem." Naruto gave a salute to the headmaster. He stepped away for a moment to try and finally got a good look at the area. Scott had motioned for Rachel to come a little closer out of Naruto's ear shot. He knew that he had heightened senses, but he was more preoccupied with the scorched landscape.

"I want you to help keep an eye on him also, if someone like Tony or Reed saw one of his more 'flashy' techniques, they'd want to investigate everything about him, and then we'd have a real problem on our hands. I know that I already told him to keep to the ones I told him to use, but he has knack for not following orders all the way though." She glanced at Naruto for a bit to see that he was still looking over the destruction. She looked back to Scott and gave him an agreeing nod, and then went to Naruto and led him back to the other X-Men to get the rest of the orders.

It was like the land had been scarred, the people, were both dead and dying in the aftermath of the disaster. The explosion had long been over, the smell of the scorched earth never seemed to go away, only to be out of place by the occasional smell of burnt flesh. The air was still thick with smoke and dirt, the sun never shining through the thick black clouds above. To him it looked like that Deidara had come through to make some 'art', it didn't look like it was as powerful as Deidara's C5 or his 'Ultimate Art' as he called it. Since his would basically just glass the whole ground and form a massive crater while this explosion left behind bits and pieces.

He wouldn't be surprised that there would be someone like him in this world. He already made a comparison between Stryker and Hidan. Who wondered who else could be here like the rest of the Akatsuki?

There were masks and colorful suits all over the place. Some he had recognized, either from the media or from stories told by the other students, but given just how many were there, he had no idea who the rest were.

Several dozens of clones carried slabs of concrete between them to areas designated for trash and disposal. It must have weighed an easy ten or so tons, but they did so without a complaint, faces set in their grim silence.

Between tasks, the mutant veterans all checked up on their intern team member, even if all it meant was a covert glance here or there.

Rachel sent an approving nod to Cyclops on the newly minted member of the X-Men, even if his official membership has yet to be made. Naruto was doing well. Any of the other kids would've either puked their guts throughout the whole thing or would've taken a breather or two; he'd done neither. Naruto was taking up as much slack as he could for the people that needed to rest. She smiled a bit before turning back to the job in front of her.

Though there were others watching the grimly silent teen as well, making note of his abilities for later.

"Hey, Cyclops! Marvel Girl! We need some help over here!" Cyclops turned around. Two firemen were calling for him. Motion detectors are picking something up twenty feet down, but we haven't got our diggers yet." A fireman had called out from some nearby rubble.

"Everybody back. Clear a little space, huh?" The fireman was a little perplexed by the vibrating rubble, Rachel had started to lift the rubble out from the covering and brought it up into the air.

"Can you handle this on your own, Rachel?"

"I can handle it, Scott."

"She's got this stuff down like no tomorrow." Naruto had made a few Shadow Clones to pick up the rest of the rubble and help the survivors out of the hole, he wanted to try and test out to see if he had the Wood Style with some Wood Clones, but he wasn't too sure if he could count on them not turning back into wood and someone taking them back to wherever to they do their experiments. Rachel had smiled at his comment, despite the grave atmosphere in the area, he seemed to brighten the mood up a bit wherever he was.

"Six more survivors over by the school's north side. Bring blankets and a defibrillator."

The rest of the X-Men were continuing on with aid and relief, until they were overshadowed by massive Sentinels watching their every move. Naruto thought that it was a complete insult to them. Clearly the government didn't think that they could take care of themselves and didn't think that the other heroes could back them up in case of an attack on the mutant heroes.

"You gotta be kiddin' me." Wolverine was not too pleased by the sight, but a young boy, probably no older than eight or nine was a little scared at the sight, but his mother had tried to comfort him in her own way…even if it meant putting the X-Men in somewhat of a bad light.

"M-mommy?"

"It's ok, honey. They aren't going to hurt you. The Sentinels are only here to keep an eye on the X-Men for us. They're the good guys."

"We volunteer to help with a federal emergency, and you're still following us around?"

"_Just doin' our jobs Wolverine."_

* * *

-Captain America &amp; Iron Man-

"I'm told they've got a lead on Nitro. Word is, he sneaked out of town in the back of a pickup truck."

"Does it matter? All these children, Tony. The F.E.M.A. Chief said there could be eight or nine hundred casualties. All dead for a stupid reality TV show." Steve was honestly offended that some people used their abilities for fame and fortune, rather than for the greater good like he and many other people.

"They should have called us Cap. Speedball and the New Warriors were out of their league. The whole country saw the tape where they said they were only chasing ratings." He knew that the Superhuman Registration Act would be pushed even further after this event, it was only a matter of time. He and Steve walked over the damage done to the town observing each of the different masks and costumes they all recognized, but what caught both their attention and several others was the multiple clones of a young blonde kid with odd eyes and a giant looking fan on his back.

* * *

-Goliath &amp; Ms Marvel-

"It won't just be mutants they're watching after this one, Ms Marvel. This is the straw that broke the camel's back. You mark my words." He knew that the good old days were gonna come to an end eventually, and then they'd either have to hang up the cape, work for the government, or face prison time.

"You think?"

"Are you kidding me? After Philly getting bombed, the Hulk trashing Vegas…Wolverine saying he was gonna kill the President? This is the start of the witch hunts, honey. They'll be coming after us with Torches and Pitchforks."

"Yeah, well, maybe they're right this time Goliath…who the hell can justify this?"

* * *

-Naruto-

Cyclops had given him and Rachel a quick break for the time being, and they headed over to the Blackbird to get a drink. Rachel had tossed him a bottle of water from a nearby ice chest and a towel to get the grunge off of him, and they both sat down on the steps heading into the jet.

"I know now's probably not a good time considering what's going on around us right now…but how did things go last night with the reunion?"

He wanted to try and bring some bit good to the day, despite the job bringing nothing but gloom and depression.

"It went really well actually…I thought that for a while…they wouldn't accept me for who I was, since well…you know. But, in the end, they all accepted me for who I was, and they were glad that my mom had one child before she died in a sense, and even then, they'd still love me as their own, and now…I finally have a real family." She allowed a small smile to spread on her face in the memory of last night, but for some reason, she felt that something had happened nearby, but she couldn't read anyone's minds outside the house, as if there was some sort of psychic net dropped over it. But it disappeared once the reunion was over and everyone headed home; when she stepped out of the house, she began to feel something cold and dark. She wasn't sure what to think of it, so she kept it to herself for the time being until that same feeling came around her again.

Naruto then had a big smile plastered on his face, "That's great! I knew that they'd accept you. I'm glad that you've got a real family now." He gestured a fist bump to her and had returned it in kind. They had a small break and then went straight back to working with the rest of the clean-up crews.

* * *

-Captain America &amp; Iron Man-

They took notes of the blonde kids' abilities and the way he acted around the people and the job at hand. They suspected that it was one of the students had maybe snuck on the blackbird to try and help out, but none of the senior X-Men gave him any fuss about it. Nonetheless, they got a feeling from the teen that he wasn't quite what he appeared to be.

And what they saw made them curious but all at the same time, suspicious about him. The ability to form a small army without his system crashing down on the kid like what had happened to Madrox back in X-Factor. Heightened levels of strength, speed and agility. Enhanced healing abilities. And he seemed used to events like Stamford.

"I can't shake off that there's something off about him." To him the kid was an enigma that needed to be solved, he had his suit scanning the kid on sight and was already hacking and hiding his tracks in the O*N*E* database, he disliked not knowing who was who in the super human community.

"Even if that is the case, Scott's not irresponsible or careless, he knows better, considering he's led the X-Men since the beginning. Besides, better to leave mutants to their own people. Right, Tony?" These words were some that the Captain would come to regret heavily later in the future.

"Huh, that's weird..."

"What is?"

"I can't get a proper reading on the kid, and his O*N*E* file is rather sparse, just stating what he's showing right now."

"Something wrong with your suit then?"

"No, that's no it. My suit and my tech is working fine actually I triple checked, and even then it shouldn't be acting this way...the only thing that I can come up with is that somehow he must be shielding himself from my scanners, which should be impossible...or Emma over there is making me see just the static on the kid's data and not the real thing, though I doubt it's the later."

* * *

-Naruto-

After about 23 hours' worth of clean-up duty that would've taken even longer had Naruto have used his Shadow Clones to speed things up, and trying his best to avoid other heroes and news cameras, they were back in the blackbird on their way to the school to retire for the night. As he was about to finally get some sleep, he had some sort of vision: He saw himself sitting on the edge of the ocean with a girl about his age with long red hair in a green and yellow colored outfit with a tattered cloak that acted like a small cape. He saw that the two of them were laughing together and were eating ice cream like he and Pervy Sage used to do.

He woke back up wide eyed and began to wonder if he was going to be having these kind of things happen to him often...if that was the case, then he should really expect things to get more interesting, but he had to wonder...why the hell was he becoming involved with so many red heads?!

* * *

-Six Months Ago, Los Angeles 3:17 AM-

The weather was perfect for an assassin; one was already in a prone position with a high caliber silenced rifle with an infrared scope attached. His name was Matthew Risman, a contract killer on the black market. Even though he was in the dirty business of being a professional Hitman, he cared deeply for his wife and daughter, they meant everything to him. The rain battered against the city concealing him from any weary eyes.

His current target was a wealthy business man named Bob Forward that he was hired to take care of by a rival company. He had nothing against the man, it was just business. He had the perfect shot lined up on his head. One shot, one kill. No need to waste a second round on the man. He viewed through his scope and saw his target's expressions: paranoia and depression. He had pulled the trigger, but then his phone began to ring forcing his aim to go off. He was about to have damn good word or two with the one who interrupted his shot.

"Dammit! What?!"

"_Your wife and daughter are in grave danger, Matthew…"_

"Who is this?"

"_You must remove them from your home by 4:01 AM and not a second later. If you do not, they will die."_

"WHO IS THIS?!" He didn't take things like that lightly.

"_Please. Oh, and Matthew…Mister Forward is still alive by the way."_

And with that the man on the other line had cut the line. Matthew tried to check the caller ID, but it came up as a blank. He turned back to his attention the target and peered down the scope to see that he missed his mark by a hair and that Mister Forward was bleeding by his neck with blood, and trying to get back inside his apartment.

"Son of bitch…" He couldn't believe that the man on the phone had told him right.

He took two extra shots to make sure his target was down for the count. He didn't have time to take apart his rifle to put back into his bag, he simply slung the rifle over his shoulder and his bag on his back, and then mad a mad dash for his car.

The weather was progressively getting worse as he got closer to home, he realized now that with the way the weather was getting, that living near the basin of a ridge was a bad idea. A mudslide was going to happen. That's what began to go through his mind, and he knew with this weather it was going to wipe out his house and every one in it. He was on the phone trying to call his wife to tell her to grab their daughter and get the hell out.

"Come on…come on…pick up the phone Piper!"

He got no answer as he finally got to the house and hauled ass inside screaming their names.

"PIPER! GRACIE!"

He broke through the door to see what was going on, and got a view of his wife carrying their daughter out of bed. No doubt due to the sound of thunder and the volume of his own voice.

"Matt…what's going on?!"

"We have to get out of here, right now!"

There was a loud and building rumbling sound heading their way.

"W-What is that?!"

"I don't know! Just run!"

As they finally made out away from the house, the massive mudslide had completely wiped out their home. He held his crying daughter in protection against possibly something else, but was rewarded by the same voice from the call earlier.

"Well done, my son…the Lord sends his love you, Gracie and Piper. May we speak alone, Matthew?" He saw a man dressed in what looked like a priest's suit and had several others dressed in Christian robes behind him.

"What was…?"

"That was divine intervention…a miracle…a gift. God does not want your family to enter his kingdom. Not Yet."

"God? But…but I'm a murderer…a paid killer…how could…why would he…?" He was baffled at the reason why this had happened to him.

"Spare you this suffering and loss when you take innocent lives for profit? Because, my son…the ranks of God's army are not filled with just angels." William Stryker had come to recruit a right hand man…and now he had found one.

* * *

-Six Weeks Ago, Westchester, New York-

The men were analyzing the screens filled with names of people who had been deceased for quite some time.

"Have you found it yet?"

"Damn it, where is she? Eliminate the males!" The Reverend was getting impatient as the search was still no closer to the end.

"Accessing the database…and reconfiguring…" They stared at the data scrolling across the holographic screen listing names, they continued to look for the name that they were desperately searching for to get a hold of the one necessary for their future plans.

"There you are…pull up Julia Cabot!" He had finally found his foot in the door.

The Reverend went upstairs to his chapel hall to talk to the young boy that had been coming and praying for almost an entire year. He saw that he still was wearing the sweat hoodie and the trench coat to conceal the majority of his body, lighting the prayer alter.

"I miss you, Julia. I miss you so much...but we'll be together again…I know we will."

"It's been almost a year…"

"W-What did you say?"

"It's been almost a year now, since you lost her…and yet you still come every Sunday to honor her life in the house of the Lord. God bless you, Jay."

"How…how do you know…?" How could someone have known about Julia and he.

"I know a great deal about both you and Julia."

"Who are you?"

"A simple servant of the Lord. Julia Cabot was a beautiful soul…one I know you feel was called to heaven too soon. But do not lose faith, as she waits for you there and listens to your prayers every Sunday. Tell me, Jay. Did you know that there was an angel present the day she died?"

Jay was silent as he was slowly crying.

"No? Well, God sent one to be by her side…so that he could end her suffering and bring her home. You see, angels exist solely to serve the Lord and act as his most trusted messengers. There was an angel present the day Julia died, just as there is an angel here today…"

"W-Where?"

"You are the angel my son…and I have brought you God's message."

* * *

-Tony Stark-

Tony Stark was currently a very busy man. If the Superhuman Registration Act was haunting him like the bottle had once did, right now, it was an obsession, almost like a drug in a sense. In about two weeks, it was going to become the law. There was no doubt about that. And nothing can wake you up like 900 victims in a disaster that could have been avoided easily. A distraught mother shouting some things that hurt only because it was the truth. He prayed to God that what they were doing was right, or this would come back to bite them all in the ass, and it would hurt like hell. Now his job was to ensure that the limits and measures of the act would ensure fairness and equality to those affected by it. That brought up the thought of Aliens and Mutants. And that brought his thoughts to the new student at Xavier's.

There had been very few things able to take a hold of Tony's curiosity like that 'Ronin' boy, before that. And Iron Man himself just couldn't explain why, if someone asked him. The boy had somehow blocked his scanners back at the Stamford clean up. Maybe a being from an alternate reality? It would not have been the first time it happened…then there was his abilities. Multiplying without suffering the drawbacks Jamie Madrox suddenly had to endure, superhuman physical attributes, advanced healing abilities, the sparse O*N*E* file, and the odd feeling that he and Steve both got from the boy.

"Just what exactly are you, kid?" He voiced his thoughts out loud.

* * *

-Naruto-

"Achoo! Damn it, some bastard must be talking about me…" He narrowed his eyes, and rubbed his hand under his chin trying to take a guess to the identity of the one talking about him.

* * *

-The next day with Emma Frost and Tony Stark-

It had the intended effect he was hoping for. Unmasking Spider-Man on live TV in front of the whole country. Tony was sure that the deed would have made a lot of people change their minds about the Registration Act. So he decided to try and gain a few more supporters. And he had a few places he needed to check. One of these was the Xavier Institute. And boy oh boy, did they sure know how to brew some mean OJ.

"This must be the first time you and I have been alone since Marrakesh, Miss Frost." Said Tony to open the discussion with the former White Queen of the Hellfire Club, while pouring himself some of the beverage. "Tell me: does Cyclops know about that little arrangement we used to have when neither of us were dating?"

"Oh, Cyclops knows everything, Tony." Replied the truthful Emma. He was probably the only person on the planet who she would show her romantic side to. "He can't keep secrets from my telepathic mind, so it's only fair that I don't keep anything from him."

"My. You really have changed." Tony's reaction was genuine as it could get. He drank a bit of the juice, before resuming his talk. "Obviously, you know what I'm about to ask. Is there any point in verbalizing?"

"Not especially." Emma shook her head from side to side slowly. "We had a meeting just last night and decided that helping you hunt down these anti-registration rebels would be a violation of everything the X-Men believe in."

"Even with ninety-percent public backing? And that boyfriend of yours so keen to curry favor with the white house again?" Time to pull out the card of political and public image.

"Perhaps we just know what it's like to be persecuted when you're fighting the good fight, Mister Stark." No effect. Tony didn't roll high enough on his Diplomacy check.

"Ask moms and dads in Stamford if they think Captain America's still fighting the good fight." Ahh, the genocide card. What child's play.

"Oh, please. Don't try to blackmail me with genocide. Do you really want to compare notes?" Tony was an idiot to play that card. Emma decided it was time for a grave image to appear. An island once home to 16 million mutants, was now an enormous graveyard and nothing but a smoking ruin. "Where were the Avengers when Genosha died, Iron Man? Where were you when our babies were burning?"

"I thought you were supposed to be looking after the interest of your students, Emma. Is it really wise to put them on a collision course with the American government?" The student card. It was all he had left to use. But it seemed like Emma always had a counter card to play in response.

"Oh, we don't want a fight, darling. We're perfectly happy to remain on this reservation they've made for us." The image began to fade. "All we ask is that you leave us alone and, in return, you have our word that we won't join forces with your star-spangled friend." And then she put on that smile. That smile that she always put on when the conversation ended positively in her favor, even though it was a fake smile meant to add insult to injury most of the time. "Your choice, Mister Stark."

Tony sighed and drank another bit of his OJ. "Well, then there's another other matter that I came here to discuss."

Emma searched Tony's mind again. And she was surprised by what she had found. Naruto. "I originally thought that you were hiding something from me and made me see that my scanners couldn't pick anything up on the kid, but I realized that it was him somehow."

"He may not look it, but he's a native to Japan. His father was American, and his mother Japanese. They brought him over here a few days ago." Tony played with the ice cubes in his glass, making it move in a round circle. "If you want to take a closer look at him, then I'll have to say no."

Her mind flashed back to one of Naruto's memories when Madara had returned fully from the dead, and commenting on how stealing Hashirama's cells and using Obito to bring him back would ensure the Infinite Tsukuyomi to succeed. She shuddered a bit at the thought of someone like Sinister had a hold of Naruto's cells.

Tony was about to speak up in an attempt to persuade her, but Emma had stopped that altogether. "If you even try to come back here as a draft officer to the students, or try to 'examine' Naruto, then consider yourself banned from the school grounds. So I suggest that you leave those thoughts elsewhere." Damn…she knew that it was only a matter of time before someone stuck their nose into the boy. She hoped that Stark would leave the matter alone, but then again…he wasn't the type of man to not know everything.

"Alrighty then, well then I guess then I can't really say anything else…unless the kid himself would like to speak on his own behalf."

"I already know what he'll say. No. Now would you like to escort yourself off the premises, or would you like for me to do it for you?"

"No need Miss Frost, I'll see myself out." He sat up from his chair and left back to his limo. And with the one thought in mind. Emma was determined to not let him near the boy Naruto. Now he really wanted to know more…what was she and Scott hiding from everyone else about the boy?

-Two Weeks Later; Scott &amp; Emma-

"How can you be so frustrating this early in the morning? All you have to do is look out the window to see that I'm right!" They had stayed up for a while now discussing the future of the students. Turning back to him, as he followed her down the stairs to the main foray.

"They have to be pushed, Scott. They have to be ready."

He had traded his visor for a pair of sunglasses, with the frown upon Scott's face speaking volumes before he even did.

"I'm not arguing that, Emma. But they're still just children and I don't want to see their childhoods torn away from them needlessly." This school was supposed to be a haven for mutants, it was supposed to give them the one thing they couldn't get out in the rest of the world. An education and a life worth living.

"I think it's a little late for that, darling."

His eyebrows only furrowed more, stopping at the base of the steps. "I know why you're doing this."

"Do you? The news is out, Scott. T mutant population has been decimated…" Turning around to face him, her blue eyes were hardened with a fierce determination.

"And sooner or later our enemies will come for us."

Not really meaning to stop, she paused in her argument to pull the exterior door open at the heavy thumping sound at the base of the pristine door.

"Is someone at the door?"

Never deterring her sight from Scott, she reached down to turn the knob and see who or what it was at the door.

"If you want blood on your hands, so be it. But I'm going to protect these children at any cost…" She didn't realize that in the future, he would have blood on his hands, of both friend and foe. And neither of them realized that is exactly what would happen in the next few minutes.

Opening the door, all she had to do was look down before all the blood left her face. "Jay?"

The young Guthrie limp in his arms, Scott made a beeline for the med bay, and Emma hot on his heels. "CALL NARUTO UZUMAKI! GET HIM TO THE INFIRMARY!" He probably didn't need to shout, but, given Jay's current status, some things just couldn't be helped. "NOW!"

* * *

-Naruto-

It had been almost a week since Rachel, along with a few others had left to go to some place called the Shi'ar to help some friends of theirs. He had asked Rachel why exactly she had to go, but she said that it was a family matter in a sense. He didn't want to intrude on anything of the like, so he had bid her goodbye, but not before they had hugged, and _she_..._she_ mind you, had planted a small kiss on his forehead. He blushed a bit at her goodbye, but had accepted that she would be gone for a while.

Honestly...it sucked when your new best friend just happened to get pulled away on to some lengthy mission after they began to grow on you and vice versa. But he knew that she'd be back and that they'd have a lot to catch up on.

**"And you didn't even return it...what an idiot...hehehe."**

_"Hey! I don't wanna risk getting turned into a vegi you damn rat!"_

**"Yeah, yeah whatever. I still say you should've at least tried to make a move on her."**

_"Forget it...well, I just hope that whatever she and the others had left to go deal with, they'll be done with it, the sooner the better."_

He wanted to get some sleep, but something's are just denied to him.

"NARUTO!"

"Huh! Wuh!"

* * *

-The Med Bay-

Hank had barely settled back in. Checking his ongoing lab work before sleep meant that he was caught by surprise when Scott came bursting in. "Scott?" Though his cat-like eyes and senses were much quicker to notice the teen and his bloodied state.

"Help me, Hank… Jay's been hurt." Emma rushing in in his wake.

But his words were nowhere near as precise as the furry X-Man. He could immediately see the bloody damage done to the lad. "HURT? Scott, the poor boy has been-"

"I know, Hank! Now help me!"

The door opened again. This time to reveal the otherworldly shinobi. Worry and confusion etched in his face, "What's going...what the hell happened to him?!" Seeing the state of his friend, he needed to heal and regrow his wings to keep him alive. He knew from wounds like those that he was going to deteriorate and die from blood loss.

"No…No! No!" he screamed, his eyes wide in panic. "GET AWAY!" Hank jumped over to the table just as the formerly winged boy started to thrash around.

"He's pulling out his stitches! Hold him down!"

The adults did their best to restrain them, but he started fighting back even harder. Naruto had decided to try and place a minor Genjutsu on Jay to settle him down. Genjutsu was never his forte, but he decided to experiment with it due to his newfound ocular powers.

"Jay...hold still and sleep."

His tomoe began to spin in a clockwise motion and he stared deep into Jay's eyes, who in turn had looked into Naruto's eyes. He began to stop struggling against the senior X-Men and he started to slip into a peaceful sleep, until he finally collapsed on the med bed.

"Thank you Naruto."

"No problem. How the hell did this happen? Who did this to him?"

"I couldn't make out any coherent thoughts unfortunately. So I can't say for sure."

"Dammit..." He gritted his teeth at whoever had done this to Jay.

Naruto continued to heal up his wounds and then regrew Jay's wings. While Emma had seen enough and made a decision that she hoped would ensure the safety of the students. She just hoped that down the line, it was the right one to make.

* * *

-Nori &amp; David-

"So I've been given permission to head out tomorrow..."

"_All students are to report to the Danger Room in 10 minutes."_

"Uh!"

"...morning? Nori? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, except for Frost shouting in my head. Didn't you hear her?"

* * *

-The Common Room-

"_This is a training exercise. Come in uniform."_

"Yeah, we're having an assembly or something. Dude, I totally just sniped you." Santo was enjoying every bit of his time with Brian before he had to leave the school.

"I do not have a uniform." Granted that this was expected since the only thing that really counted was the X belt that was given to her when she joined the Hellions.

"Guys? Guys, hello? Am I missing something?" Brian was still clueless as to what was going on.

* * *

-The Stepford Cuckoo's-

"She's very upset."

"Wouldn't you be?"

"This is going to end badly."

* * *

-The Danger Room-

All of the students had finally arrived in the Danger Room and were awaiting Emma's response to why all of the still powered students were being assembled like this. Naruto arrived via Flying Raijin when he placed a seal in the room when he first came here so he could teleport wherever he needed to be in a flash.

"Today everything changes." A good start, he thought. Her tone was as serious as her face. "No more squads. No more field days."

"What?"

"You can't be serious."

"We won't do it."

Naruto blinked at that. It seemed that the Cuckoos had managed to read Emma's mind. They knew beforehand what she was about to say…and they refused to do it? That didn't sound good.

"You came here to learn how to use your powers and find your place in the world. Now we will see what you've learned and where your place is." The trio's reaction caused her to glance in their direction, but she returned her gaze to the crowd yet again, eyeing them one by one. "There are two possibilities- on the battlefield or on the sidelines. You will decide which."

Naruto crossed his arms. He was beginning to understand what she was doing. They were all dressed in what they wore when they did combat training and went on missions. She wants to…but didn't she say that she wanted to keep them safe or some thing along those lines?

"The exercise is simple. Every man for himself." She threw another glance in the students' direction, who had started to murmur.

"Last students standing will train to be X-Men…the rest do not."

The audience-wide stupefying had begun. Attentive eyes locked onto several students, then she laid out an order. "Wallflower. Blindfold. Nezhno. Ernst. Naruto. You are excused."

At first, he wasn't sure who she was talking about, until they started to leave. Wallflower he recognized, and she was quite vocal about staying even. But the ice queen was adamant. "Leave now." And, just like that, the five of them were dismissed. He was curious about the four others on what their powers were to have them sent away. He had a feeling he was told to leave since he could wipe the floor with everyone here. That much was obvious.

Cessily's mind was still racing to catch up to what her teacher had just told them all.

"Wait, Miss Frost…what about Kevin? Did you find him yet?"

"Jay Guthrie is missing as well."

"I could have sworn I just saw Jay…"

"Right now, I would suggest you focus on the students around you." she advised them, though they weren't too sure on how to take the advice.

"This is stupid. I don't belong here. Santo was right…my powers are useless in a fight." Josh started walking to the exit, but he was stopped by Laurie who'd lingered on, even after being dismissed by Frost.

"You can do this, Josh..." she supported. The relationship between the two was so very weird, but still, she wanted to support him. "You've worked really hard to be here. Don't give up now." And if that didn't banish the doubts from his mind, "I have faith in you." Josh's frown soon turned upside down into a smile of apologetic relief.

"...thanks, Laurie."

Everyone else though had their own comments to make of the situation.

"I swear, if you touch me with that tongue, Victor, I will crumble it."

"We'll see about that."

"This is like the best day of my life."

"I hear that."

The two rock teens knocked fists enthusiastically.

"Uh, does Mister Summers know about this?" A question that was promptly ignored.

"Wait…can I leave my body outside?"

"I knew I should have brought my helmet."

Sooraya looked away from anyone else, avoiding eye contact. "This feels wrong." But Cessily still brought her hands up, placed comfortingly around her shoulders.

"You'll be fine. Just think of it as another training exercise, Sooraya," she offered.

But her interpretation of the young woman's words was incorrect. It wasn't worry that she voiced.

Standing adjacent to the two team members, was one of the newer students Hisako Ichiki, who also went by Armor. "What are you two worried about? You're Frost's students."

"Yeah, Hisako…and that means we actually learned something." Cessily snapped in retort, going out of her way not to glare back in retaliation. Tempers had been running high lately.

But there were some who saw opportunity...Nori's gauntlets were starting to spark intermittently. Oh, now was the time. Now that she had the go ahead, she was gonna fry Kellar.

Catching her intense glare, he smirked back at her.

Nori's electrical sparks only grew more powerful and violent.

_"Hellion."_ He lost surprise at hearing someone else's voice in his head, he looked up to the control room where Ms. Frost had retreated to.

_"Whatever it takes, I want X-23 taken out first."_ He shifted his attention to the clawed clone. The memory of her jumping into the fray to save his ass in the simulated mission made it's.

_"Is that a problem, Mr. Keller?"_ There was an edge to her voice this time. It wasn't often she had to repeat herself to get results.

"No…" he whispered.

_"What was that?"_

Shoulders sagging just a little, he looked back up, meeting her eyes. "No. It's not a problem."

_"Good."_ And within the same breath, figuratively speaking, "Begin," echoed around the room.

Then the massive free for all began with every student landing a hit on the person next to them, even if it was one of their own teammates...

Julian just happened to be right next to Santo who had brought down both of his hands to hit the shorter kid. Luckily Julian thought ahead should someone have got him in the back, he raised his telekinetics behind him in a shield.

"Nor me, you idiot! Them! The Hellions are staying together!"

"Oh...right. My bad."

The students were wailing, cutting, punching, and kicking one after the other. Mercury vs Armor. Dust vs Indra. X-23 vs Onyxx. There was no end to it.

Julian saw his chance to take out Laura and shoved several students out of the way.

"Move it!"

Nori was taking her shot at shocking Hellion now that she got the chance. Electricity shot through the air, rebounding off an instinctively projected shield. Breaking his focus from taking down Laura, he turned his head to see the blue haired teen flaring her gloves in anticipation.

"Ashida...I don't have time for this."

Her mouth created a snarl. "Too bad. You're going down, Keller!"

"Fine. You want to go? Let's go!"

* * *

-Laura-

Delivering a rattling palm strike to the chin of a porcupine teen, she kept moving. On the field of battle, a still target was a dead target. Flipping back, fleetingly in a one-armed handstand, she delivered a kick to another teen's shoulder while dodging hardened projectiles from yet another student focusing their attention on her.

But no matter how skilled, in prolonged combat, everyone sooner or later could get caught off guard.

Santo saw that she was down on the ground recovering from taking out a few others. He raised his arms up in the air to finish her

"Clone this!"

Crouching in recovery from her acrobatics, she saw what was about to transpire, and let out one of her foot claws to slice off one of the arms in an attempt to force him off balance and retreat from her.

"Hey, that's not cool." He was sad. He was depressed that a girl got the better of him.

When she tried to move to her next target...nothing. She couldn't even budge.

"Urk!"

_"Can't move, dear?"_ Her green eyes widened only a hair before rising up to the control room looking over the Danger Room. The woman had made it quite clear that she was not welcome here. Only, now, she was doing something about it_._

_"That's a shame."_ There was a lot of smug confidence in her tone.

To the side, Hellion finally pried off Surge before zooming in on Laura. A telekinetic energy field coated him as he prepared to attack, but both of their attention were turned to the other charging stone teen, Onyxx.

"Oh, crap."

To her silent confusion though, the telekinetic extended his energy field to her, wrapping her in it, and lifted them both out of the way in a shot, just missing being caught between Onyxx and the reinforced Danger Room walls. She looked to him for an answer.

"No one saves me! Got it?"

"Okay." She replied in her usual monotone voice.

"Now we're even."

Sensing the hill in the air, both sent eyes to the control room, now easily right in front of them, and seeing the headmistress glaring…coldly at them. They didn't need to be psychics to see that the woman was pissed off, but holding it in very well.

_"ENOUGH."_

Reeling from his head-on with the wall, Onyxx voiced a dizzy "Did I win?" He was still seeing stars whilst rubbing his aching head.

"Mercury. Dust. Hellion. Elixir. Rockslide. Surge." Hardly had she stepped through the doors, the headmistress had gone through a string of names. "You six will go on to train as new X-Men alongside Naruto." Many of the students were already recovered, or well on their way.

"She picked four Hellions...there's a shocker." Hisako groused sullenly.

* * *

-Naruto-

After Emma had ordered he and the other four students to leave. He heard an all-out brawl spark within a few minutes. He tried his best to sense out who was still conscious and fighting, but the energies were all jumbled up, more than likely due to everyone just hitting left and right, rather than concentrating on a single opponent one at a time like a seasoned fighter.

As he was focusing on who was who, he noticed out of the corner of his eyes that Cyclops and the Cuckoos were heading towards the Danger Room.

And he didn't look the least bit happy...

**"Looks like someone didn't get the memo for today."**

_"I'd hate to be in Frost's position right now."_

Soon he opened up the door to view the 'exercise' come to an end.

"Don't you mean seven, Emma?" Making his presence known, as he stepped into the room of bruised and battered teens.

"You forgot to include Laura." Seemingly, that was all the point he was there to make as he turned on heel and marched straight back out, but pretty much anyone with any hearing picked up the heated comment he'd murmured to her when he'd turned away. "And we'll discuss this little 'exercise' later."

Knowing what the night ahead would contain, she stood firm with her usual demeanor. "There will be an assembly in the auditorium in 30 minutes for all mutant students. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Keller…Surge will be the new team leader."

"WHAT?!"

"WHAT?!"

"Yes, and Naruto will also be team leader alongside you, better get to work on forming strategies with him soon. He works with just about anything."

If anyone was more aghast than Julian, it was Noriko. You could laugh at their reactions simultaneously.

Josh summed up the whole situation altogether. "Oh, this is going to suck."

* * *

-30 minutes later; the auditorium-

Emma stood up to a podium with the speakers active and several other senior X-Men standing off to the side, with the exception of Cyclops and Wolverine, as they themselves were already at another meeting at the Baxter Building.

The few remaining students watched in silence and depression.

"Look around you...for this is all that remains. Many of you only know the world where mutants thrived and were on the rise. Where we influenced culture, built our own cities and even a country. A world where we numbered in the millions and Charles Xavier's dream was finally within our reach...the world we knew is gone and with it most of our hope and survival. We are scattered across the globe numbering in the hundreds. The few of us on this stage have faced some of the dangers that await us, but I fear nothing has prepared us for what is to come...you are at your childhood's end. You are mutants in a world that hates and fears you. It's time to grow up. The remaining human students that haven't left already will board a bus in 45 minutes to take them someplace safe. If you want to say your goodbyes, now is the chance."

And with that, she ended her speech to oversee the safe transport for the depowered students in the bus.

* * *

-Elsewhere-

The Reverend William Stryker stood up to a podium in a stadium, with the speakers active and several other members of the Purifiers standing off to the side, with the exception of Matthew Risman and other skilled assassins as they were preparing a plan of attack soon.

The many followers watched and cheered in joy and happiness.

"Look around you...for this is but a handful of God's children. The Lord watched as the seeds of Satan gained strength and claimed our world. He patiently waited for his children to rise up and fight the forces of evil...but we did nothing. And Eden fell. Now God has given us one last chance to make right what we've allowed to go so very long. Now you must decide what you will do. Align with God to end Satan's reign or turn your back on the Lord once again...make no mistake, this is Judgment Day. God Bless you all."

And with that, he ended his speech, turning to his hooded followers behind him to discuss the plan for eliminating several of those touched by Satan.

"Assemble my Purifiers. We have a bus to catch."

Off above in the stadium lights, the masked man sat on top of one of the light structure watching the whole speech play out.

"Let's see how things will go for this little event...shall we?" He chuckled darkly to himself, as he disappeared from the area.

* * *

-Not in the Institute-

They had less than an hour. After everyone was prepared, the teachers guided them just outside Salem Center, where a bus would take them out of the school and back to their families, in secret. They used the old Morlock Tunnels. They couldn't risk allowing O*N*E* to be involved when odds are, they'd make a huge spectacle of the entire ordeal.

From what he was told, the Morlocks were mutants who couldn't go as far as normal could be by human standards, if any, there were, due to their grotesque appearances that their mutation made them look like. After a series of massacres, the Morlocks no longer lived there. But they were still a good way of moving unnoticed.

Naruto however had asked to speak with Hank in private before the bus headed out. He led him back to his lab in the med bay so no one could overhear their conversation.

"Yes, what can I do for you my boy?"

"Well, it's kinda sorta a request and a question...but is it possible to for me to be able to go back home and could you help me get there? I mean, I wanna stay here and help everyone out here...I don't wanna go back after being her for the past two weeks but, I want to at least tell all my friends back home that I'm alright." He wanted to make things right here after the mutants were wronged in almost every way. He wanted to see Rachel again for sure. Maybe even show her and the others the villages.

Hank had closed his eyes and rubbed his chin in deep thought. Travel between alternate realities was completely possible...given the right technology and conditions. He sympathized with the boy on letting his loved ones know that he was alive and in good hands.

"Well Naruto my boy, you see, travel between..."

He was rudely interrupted by a massive tremor that shook all the way through the ground down under towards them.

"What the hell!"

"Quickly, we have to get back to the others!"

They ran as fast as they could towards where everyone else was...the bus pick up point outside the school grounds. Well Naruto decided to slow his speed down to stay with Hank

When they finally arrived, they saw a fiery blaze upon a melting structure and others surrounding it. They realized what it was...the school bus that was supposed to take the depowered students out away from the school to safety...with the students still inside...

* * *

_**And with that, concludes the Childhood's End arc and...**_

**"Ah! Ah! She said it! She said it!"**

_**"Yes Wade? What did she say...?" I'm currently gritting my teeth in frustration right now, in case you guys are wondering.**_

**"She said the title of the arc dude! She totally said it in the chapter!"**

_**"Yes I realize that Wade...now go back to your warehouse or wherever it is you usually sleep or hang out...you don't come in until later when Messiah War starts up...idiot..."**_

**"Awwwww!"**

_**"Wade!"**_

**"Okayyyy then..."**

_**Ugh, now back to what I was saying before Deadpool interrupted me...this will be the chapter to end Childhood's End and the next arc will begin the Crusade arc. Remember to vote on the poll on my profile. Review, favorite, and follow this story, but no flames please as they will be deleted. Thank you and until next time. And before you guys start bashing me, I picked the name Ronin for his temporary codename. Yes, I do own 47 Ronin, and I thought that it was entertaining in an action sense. I'm still accepting ideas for codenames for Naruto. Though now I'm officially torn if I should even add Rachel into the pairing poll after thinking more about it. Maybe, maybe not I'm not so sure. Let me know if you guys think I should.  
**_

_**Also on a side note, I want to have a new story pic for the desktop version and I was wondering if anyone would like to draw up what Naruto looks like now along with his Susanoo, I'd appreciate it, if anyone wants to do so. See ya guys next time :)**_


	6. Chapter 5: Crusade Part 1

_**Hello everyone! And this is the beginning of Crusade! Now to say a few things to you guys about the last chapter. 1) The reason why Naruto couldn't sense the negative emotions from the Purifiers launching the rocket to destroy the bus was because they were out of his range to sense them, simple as that. To be honest, I can't really remember if there really was a range for him; but also because the students were being smuggle well out of the school's grounds and away from the eyes of the Sentinels standing guard. Plus, having to write in those characters would take up a lot of time, and I really wanna keep going with the main story with the characters that make it through the series.**_

_**2) I am seriously considering adding Rachel Grey into the voting poll on my profile, as I find her to be another person that has much in common with Naruto, much like Hope, and Lil' Jean, so please let me know what you guys think in PM's and reviews; I will post her comicvine profile address at the end of the chapter. Also, I own nothing related to Naruto, or Marvel, the following chapter contains material from the final pages of New X-Men #24, a majority of 25, and some of 26. So enjoy everyone!**_

* * *

Chapter 5: Crusade Part 1

* * *

-Earlier-

The depowered students were being escorted to a bus in secret out of the prying eyes of O*N*E*, hopefully to avoid any unnecessary complications with anyone. And yet, they had no idea what would come next…

Each of the students were voicing their opinions on the matter and saying their goodbye's to their friends.

"Why is this happening?"

"Can we ever come back?"

"…don't want to go…don't wanna be human…"

"I'm going to miss you guys."

"Where are we going?"

"I'm scared."

"It's going to be ok, Callie."

"Thanks Cess."

"We'll find you Sarah."

"Hopefully, Nori…"

"Say goodbye to the girls for me, Julian."

"I got your back man."

"This can't be happening."

"Later, Brian." Julian had bid farewell to his teammate, and one of his best friends…for the last time.

"Later."

And with that, the rest of the students began to make their way back to the Morlock tunnels entrance to get back to the school, but Josh was the only one who voiced what everyone was feeling.

"This sucks."

It hurt them deeply, but it would last forever, within the next few minutes. Unbeknownst to everyone, the sound of something being launched into the air was so quiet, that unless listened closely, or you had enhanced hearing like Laura, you'd never know what was going on. As the object grew closer to the bus, only Brian realized what it was, and Laura immediately knew what was going on.

"Oh, no…"

"AMBUSH!"

It was a heavy ordnance missile aimed directly for the bus. Soon, everyone's vision was consumed by a bright light of destruction and a loud explosion that almost ruptured their ear drums.

"NOOOO! NOOOO!" Cessily was the only one who voiced everyone's disbelief in what had just happened. Nori was the first to spring into action to hopefully save them.

"This can't be happening…this can't be…oh, no…Andrea…HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Julian and Cessily heard her cries, and began to follow her lead, but Santo was still in shock at what happened. All the big talk he would usually make, and he couldn't even back it up in this moment. He finally collapsed from the shock of what he saw, and began to hyperventilate a bit.

"W-What happened?"

Julian needed his friend to get up and help since his strength could help them move the wreckage to get to any of the survivors.

"SANTO! GET UP! SANTO!"

He turned back to the bus calling out for his best friend, hoping that he was at least still alive.

"BRIAAAAANNN!"

He tore open the bus so that they had room to maneuver in and saw Nori already inside trying to help someone that might have lived.

"Brian! Where are you?! Come on…you're ok…you've gotta be…Brian, where are you?! BRIAN! I'm coming, Brian! Just hold on…"

Julian finally saw his friend, but there was no movement at all. He ran towards Brian's body to hopefully recover him, but another explosion occurred enveloping his vison, and was on the receiving end of some minor burns to the right side of his face.

Laura had started cutting into the wreckage to continue on. She found the last one, DJ was his name, was barely holding onto whatever life he had. He was coughing up blood from being cut almost in half from the waist, by a large piece of the bus. Josh finally caught sight of someone he thought he could help, but he was too late.

"DJ! MARK! I'm here buddy. You're gonna be ok. You're gonna be fine. I'll fix..."

"He's dead!"

"Get away from me! I can save him! Come on, DJ! You're going to be ok...I can fix you...I can fix you..."

He was desperate to try and do something, but Laura pulled him away finally before he got caught in another possible explosion. Then there would be no one to really help heal whoever was hurt in the attack.

Sooraya began to transform into her dust to snuff out the flames here and there. She was continuing on as she came across Noriko as a bit of wreckage came down on her head and knocked her out.

"Noriko! Noriko! Hold on, I'll get...help."

She was speechless at the site of her fellow classmate's bodies in front of her in the fiery blaze.

"No...no...Allah, no...NOO!"

Cessily heard her teammate's cries and came to her aid and attempted to shield her from the flames.

"Sooraya! Sooraya, please...it's ok..."

She tried to calm her down, but she cried in terror at the sight of one of the Sentinels, thinking that it had come to possibly finish the job on the rest of the students.

Its bright flood lights turned on and the pilot spoke over the speaker system.

_"Attention, mutants! You are not authorized to be...oh, dear God."_

Naruto and Hank finally arrived to the scene and both were shocked by what they saw. Naruto immediately knew that they needed to douse the flames permanently, and then they could help save the survivors, but there were none to be found within.

**Water Style: Water Wave.**

He formed the hand signs for the Jutsu and water came streaming out of his mouth, covering the area with water to put out the fires spread throughout the place.

* * *

-Tomorrow Morning-

The parents of the deceased students had been contacted and all but 15 of the families had taken their bodies back. The others simply wanted nothing to do with them...even in death. Naruto was no stranger to those type of people...but what stung him most were the parents...they simply didn't love their children enough to take them back.

He was dressed in what they would wear back in the Leaf village when any funeral was held. An all-black attire without his headband.

He heard Mr. Wagner's words as he spoke over the lives lost in the attack, he didn't really understand some of it, but he knew that they were meant to provide comfort, and give strength to the ones who lost their friends in the attack, and to insure that they wherever they were, was a better place. The teachers had lifted the first casket and carried it on over to the gravesite made for the one that they were carrying. Brian Cruz, one of the Hellions.

"I am the resurrection of life...he who lives believes in me, though he die, yet shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison...because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen...for the things that are seen are transient. The things that are unseen are eternal. We have come together to honor a life that has touched many of us. All of us who knew him, we were blessed to be a part of his journey..."

* * *

-Logan &amp; Scott-

"Look at the world we've given these kids. How are they supposed to deal with this?" He had a feeling what he would say, but wanted to hear it regardless.

"They'll learn. Or they'll die. Simple as that." A blunt, but true answer.

"And whoever's responsible for this?" It was a rather rhetorical question, since he knew what was on Logan's mind about how to deal with the murderers.

"They'll just die."

"Fine by me." And that was true, he was completely alright with that outcome. Soon though, he would want that outcome to be just that for some of their enemies.

Kurt continued on with his speech as the two men conversed.

"Today we must remember the life, not the death, of our fallen friend...for our memories are what keep our loved ones with us, long after they have left our side. The value of a life is not judged by its length but rather how it is lived...it is what we do with the time we are given that matters. Did we do more good than harm? Did we male more friends than enemies? Did we do all that we could for those we love? Those are the questions we should ask ourselves. As I look around at the sad faces gathered here today, I can see what a deep impact this life made on all of us. Today we must say goodbye to a dear friend. I know I speak for everyone when I say...we love and miss you Brian. Such friendships are what we live for. They are not to be cast aside, but rather honored as we move forward in our own journey. Brian will always be a part of us. For these are the very bonds that make us human. At times like these it is easy to focus on our anger...at the injustice...at our own failures.

* * *

-Josh &amp; Laurie-

Those last few words had hit Josh the most. He was an Omega-Level healer dammit! Why couldn't he have saved a single life last night! He was too focused on his failure and was too angry to see that it wasn't his fault.

Laurie tried to tell him that it truly wasn't while crying her eyes out at the loss they had suffered.

"Josh...it's not your fault...Josh..."

Naruto caught sight of him glaring down at the ground and towards the casket, along with overhearing Laurie. He wished that soon he would open his eyes to reality and quit blaming himself. Though it was rather ironic a bit. He himself was wanting a friend to stop blaming his own self for not being able to save someone, when he himself wasn't there at all, or rather...he was just too late to do anything but put out the flames, and help taking care of the deceased. He knew that if hadn't asked Mr. McCoy about returning home for a bit, back in the lab, that he could've easily have stopped this from happening. But he knew nothing good could come from self-guilt and blame.

He needed to be strong and compassionate to the remaining students, he knew that this was only the first of much blood to come from this, and they had never been put in a situation like this before. The war had taught him much, and Neji...may he rest in peace...was one of his best friends...died in his arms. So he knew that he would eventually have to help them deal with the losses they would soon endure.

He glanced over the other students at the funeral.

Cessily was standing next to Julian who would've had half a burnt face, had he not have been there to heal him up immediately. Cessily herself was quiet and composed, but he caught a few tears trailing down her metallic cheeks.

Nori had been holding hands with her boyfriend David, who was also silently crying whilst composed at the same time. But Nori had been quiet the entire time. She never shed a tear the whole time. Her right arm had been cut rather deeply, but Naruto had healed the thing back up and eliminated the pain. He saw the entire time that she hadn't shown any emotion at all. He knew that as the leader in the field, that you have to be strong and to think things through logically and to not give into emotions, he'd have to have a small talk with her about that.

He saw that Santo still had the shocked face plastered on his face from last night, he would break it ever now and then with some tears here and there.

Laura stood off to the side up against a tree in her own formal attire. She may not have known anyone that died last night, but she was there out of respect for them. As Logan wanted her to be here to bond with the students, and to her, this was one way to do so.

He overheard Sooraya whispering in her language, her religions' rites, and shedding tears of her own.

"Alllahumm-aj'alh-u-lanafartan-waj'alh-u-lanaajran wa zukhranwaj'alh-u-lanashafi'an-wamushaffa an."

**(Translation: Oh Allah! Cause him to become a means of salvation for us, and cause his loss to become a means of recompense for us. And make him for us an intercessor whose intercession be granted by thee.)**

He turned his attention back to Mr. Wagner finishing up with his speech.

"May God have mercy on their souls."

The process repeated for the other 14 caskets and once all was said and done with the funeral, everyone headed inside to their rooms to their own grieving.

* * *

-Elsewhere in the Institute-

"This is the protection you offer?! We have 42 dead children!"

"This was not our fault!"

"We had to bury 15 of our own because their parents didn't want them!"

"Psylocke..." She was pissed beyond belief as to what happened. O*N*E* said that they would protect the mutants from any and all outside threats no matter what, but they clearly didn't do what they had promised to do. Meanwhile Bishop was doing his best to make sure no one got hurt after trading verbal blows.

"No! We tolerate your presence, and for what?"

"Make no mistake...our presence is not up for discussion. You X-Men made the choice to circumvent O*N*E* protection by smuggling out those remaining human students." The Colonel was trying to justify that it was their fault and not O*N*E*s fault for not being active enough.

"As if you'd just let them go."

"We're here to help y..."

"Brilliant job you've done so far!"

"That's enough! This is a terrible tragedy and you have our sympathy. We will do everything possible to find those responsible...but if anyone's to blame here...it's Emma Frost." Valerie Cooper did her best to shift the blame to anything else so that no one's head would get torn off or get blown off.

* * *

-Emma's Office-

She immediately retired to her office after the funeral blaming herself for the attack, she stared at the pictures of those lives lost last night. She hated that she had failed once again to protect her students like last time. She had changed into her diamond form so that she couldn't feel any emotions. Every time she tried to help her students, they ended up dead.

"It wasn't your fault." She raised her head in a split second. She had been so in her thoughts that she didn't hear him open the door, walk in the room and close the same door behind him? He was a ninja but…she should have had at least felt his mind coming a mile away, oh then again, the Tailed Beasts made him immune to telepathy. He'd have to let someone in willingly, and they weren't in uniform being X-Men. She had expected someone to come and try to comfort her, like Scott, Hank, or Logan. Though she had a feeling that he'd drop by to offer some words of sort. "Don't mind what that woman said. Hell, don't mind what anyone says. Seems like most people like her are stupid like that."

"What is this?" She returned her gaze to the desk.

"You wanted to protect them. Even if they weren't anymore, you still thought of them as your students. And as such, you wanted what you believed what was best for them. That's why you wanted them to leave the school." He had a softened expression on his face.

Emma picked up a picture that stood out above all the others. Brian. "Most of them would have had much better lives than anyone in this school, then they became human." Brian had been one of the members of her squad, the Hellions. "Because mutants are and probably will always be hated, staying in this school would have just exposed them to further harm."

"See what I mean? You wanted to give them a better future." He uncrossed his arms. "The ones who attacked and destroyed the bus, they're the ones who took away all of that, not you. Them."

And yet…" She put the picture back on the desk, face first. "Every time I try to do what I think is right for my students…they end up dead. Just like when I first created the Massachusetts Academy back in my old Hellfire days. They died, because I didn't prepare them properly. In Genosha, I had students there as well. They also died because of me. Because I failed to act."

"And, like you said, there are always people who hate and go out of the way to do you harm and death. And you don't act in the same way because you want your students to be better than that...than you. Isn't that why you became a teacher in the first place?" Naruto turned around and opened the door, stopping under the frame to speak his last few words. "Don't think that you failed them, if you keep that way of thinking going, then you'll fail everyone. Think on the happier times that you had with your students. Find the strength to keep going and keep on fighting for them, no matter what. Even in death, the ones we love continue to watch over us and give us that strength. Even those whom we feel like we failed to do right by them, and save them."

He walked outside and closed the door behind him. While Emma smiled at herself. 'He really has a way with words.'

* * *

-Julian &amp; Cessily-

The two Hellion's had walked back together after seeing their friends buried and the proceedings over. Both still unable to deal with the reality in front of them.

"I can't believe they're gone. That...that Brian is...gone."

"It isn't supposed to be like this. I'm gonna go check on Sofia, male sure she's ok."

"Julian, what are you talking about?"

"She wasn't at the funeral. I just want to check up on her..."

"Julian...she s gone. She left the day of the attack."

"That...that's crazy...Sofia's not gone!" He couldn't believe that Sofia would do something like that to him, to everyone else, her friends, him.

"Julian...I...some guy came and picked her up, her butler or something. Oh, Julian...I thought she said goodbye."

"Not funny Cess!"

"Julian, wait! I'm sorry." She really hated herself for saying that. She should've known that he still liked her, and that he'd react this way.

Everyone else continued to grieve in their own way.

* * *

-Santo-

"I'm Sorry Brian! I'm sorry!" He slammed his fists down onto the basketball court where he and his team would play almost everyday when they had free time to themselves.

* * *

-Sooraya-

"...fararan-waj'alh-u-lanaajran wa zukhranwaj'alh-u-lana shafi'an-wa mushaffa'an...allahumm-aj'alh-u-lana..." She continued to pray for the poor souls lost last night, as she hoped that they would find paradise in Heaven with Allah.

* * *

-Julian-

"Sofia?"

He opened her room door to see that Cessily was telling the truth...she left without saying goodbye to anyone...even him.

"Sofia!"

He shouted out in both anger and depression to the point of breaking the room's window with his telekinesis.

* * *

-Nori-

She sat alone in her room for a bit thinking to herself on what to do now that she was named co-leader of the new squad.

'I can't be indecisive. I have to be strong dammit! Otherwise we're screwed when the next thing comes.'

She was lost in her thoughts when she heard the door open and saw Naruto with a box of sorts.

"Hey."

"Hey Whiskers."

Naruto ignored her nickname for him.

"I thought that it might be good to play a game."

Nori raised an eyebrow in question. Why did he wanna do that? His focus should be on the squad now.

"Yeah, but I think we need to discuss the strategies together since you and I are gonna be leading the new squad Frost put together."

"Who's all in it?" So that's what the free-for-all was for.

"You and me obviously. Sooraya, Santo, Josh, Keller, and Laura."

'Not a bad lineup actually.' He thought to himself.

"Not a bad lineup, but we'll talk about that later. I want you to focus on this right now."

He lifted open the box to reveal several pieces labeled with different kanji's. Shogi, she recognized from what she saw.

"We're gonna play some Shogi. It'll actually help you plan out strategies. My friend Shikamaru would play this a lot, and he never lost to anyone. I went up against him several times, but I only won one time. Though I had a feeling he let me win that once." He never played Shogi before in his life, except for a few times when he was with Pervy Sage during that trip. He figured this was probably the best way to get her let her emotions out, because if she didn't, then she wouldn't be able to think clearly as a leader, and would end up getting someone killed eventually in the future.

He dumped out the pieces and set them up accordingly to what he remembered, and had gestured to her to sit down with him to begin.

She let out a loud sigh in acceptance that he wasn't going to do anything else but play the game.

She sat down and made the first move. Naruto made his next one and they went back and forth making moves, neither of them really making a while lot of progress. It was silent for a while until Naruto spoke up.

"You're not gonna get very far playing this way."

"I'll play how I want to play."

"You sure about that? Doing that will make you lose several pieces."

"Whatever."

"The pieces are you're allies, your comrades, your friends...you sure you still want to play this way?"

Nori then slapped away all of the pieces and the board itself and became enraged at what he just said to her, and stood up over him.

"What the hell are you getting at?! What the hell do you want me to do?!"

Naruto stood up slowly and just stared at her for second in silence, until he spoke up.

"Let it out."

Nori softened up her gaze up a bit, but still kept her anger shown.

"All the anger, the frustration, the sadness, the pain. Let it out. If you keep it all bottled up, then you'll only end up hurting other people in the process. The way you played just showed me that. Just because you're a leader, doesn't mean that crying isn't a weakness. It makes us human. Yes, sometimes in the field, letting your emotions get the better is bad, but controlling and showing them is also good. It shows your comrades the urgency or importance to whatever it is that you're working towards. Don't let it consume you Nori."

Nori started to break down in tears slowly and quietly as he spoke and lowered her head to try and hide her stupidity. He spoke the truth. She wondered where that speech came from though, it was almost as if he had gone through the same thing.

Naruto began to pick the pieces up and placed them back in the box, and headed towards the door and turned the knob, but he turned his head around to see her one more time before retiring for the day.

"You're not alone Nori, you have friends that you can talk to for help on anything. A single person can't shoulder everything alone, that's why we have friends and comrades to depend on. It all starts here, and afterwards, it's all downhill."

Naruto then exited the room to run ito David who was walking back to Nori's room.

He heard her crying and wanted to check up on her after the funeral anyway, seeing as she distanced herself afterwards.

"She needs you right now David."

He simply said walking by him, David looked back towards the blonde down the hallway and then towards Nori's room where he heard her crying earlier. He went inside his girlfriends' room to see that she was drying up some of those tears.

"Hey, you alright Nori?"

"Yeah, I'm alright for now."

"Did Naruto say something to you?" He wonders what he could've said to make her cry like that.

"Yeah...he just helped me a bit...that's all."

The room was silent for a bit, until Nori started to bawl her tears out again, and launched herself into her boyfriends' arms, holding onto him as tight as she could.

"All I can think about is what if it was you David? What if I lost you, too?"

"Shhhh...it's alright...I'm not going anywhere, Noriko. I'm right here..."

They sat together in silence for the remaining time they had until Emma had sent a telepathic call to her and the other students she would be training personally to gather in the common room.

* * *

-The Med Bay-

"What? No! That...that can't be! No!"

Jay was just told about the attack by his older sister, Paige Gutherie, who went by the codename Husk, as she could shed her skin and all to form new substances to fight.

His older brother Sam Guthrie, who went by the codename Cannonball, who could literally become a human cannonball, was speaking with Cyclops outside his room.

"I...I just couldn't tell him. He's closer to Paige anyway, but...I just don't know what to say. I was right there Scott. I saw it coming. The bus had already left...I just couldn't get there fast enough. I couldn't save those kids...I couldn't help Jay..."

"You can't blame yourself, Sam."

"...nonononono..."

"He's not getting better, is he?"

"Physically? Yes, Naruto managed to regrow his wings when we brought him in. Mentally? I can't say for sure...not after this. I'm sorry Sam."

"Wait, he didn't have his wings when he came in?" He though that Jay had been jumped and badly beaten or something along those lines.

"No, they had been amputated actually, by someone...we don't know who yet, but we'll find out soon though."

"Scott...who is this kid honestly?" He wondered how someone could regrow entire limbs and organs from nothing, it was considered impossible really.

"I can't say for sure, but Naruto has shown several abilities beyond Omega-level." He didn't want to get his origin out so soon, it wasn't his place to go telling others.

* * *

-The Common Room-

The team had gathered when the message went out and they were still I the funeral clothes, each of them looking just as depressed as the other person next to them. Naruto simply stared out the window nearby, and thought about the chakra signature that emerged the past two times. It should be impossible for someone else to have it, unless his cells got out somehow...but that would also be impossible since Beast had his data locked up tight, and if anyone ever got near it, then it'd be wiped clean from their records. His thoughts were interrupted when Emma came in and began speaking to the newly assembled team.

"I know what you're going through."

The students turned their attention back towards the headmistress.

"I know that you want nothing more than for it to go away. To wake up from this nightmare. But this is our lives now. And even in our darkest hour, the X-Men must find a way to push on. So I need you to pick yourselves up and meet me in the Danger Room in 10 minutes, we have to train…for I fear this has just begun."

* * *

-New York City, the Church of the Reverend William Stryker-

"Thee alone we acknowledge as God and King, thee we invoke as our helper. From thee we have obtained our victories, through thee, we conquered our enemies. Thee we thank for past favors, from thee we hope for future favors. Thee we all beseech and we pray thee that thou long preserve to us, unarmed and victorious, our God-loving sons. Amen"

The racist Reverend had finished up his sermon for tonight's service. He decided to check up on the progress of his newly mad Crusade, after firing on the former Devils' transport. They needed to be sent to be judged by God, as they would soon spread sympathy of the Devil's to the rest of God's children. And he would not allow it.

"Purifier Jacob has requested your presence. It is about the vision."

"Thank you my Son." He thought that it was odd as he was far younger than the man who helped him out of his arch bishop cloak.

He descended down into the basement of his church, also the new HQ for his new Purifiers.

"Tell me…are the changes as far-reaching as we expected?"

"Oh yes, Reverend. Just as you expected."

"Do not doubt God's gifts, my son."

"Never Reverend. After the last strike, only a handful of obstacles remain on the day. Another has been marked as an Omega threat." Jacob punched up an image of said threat, containing two blonde teenagers dressed in yellow uniforms.

"Excellent. Now we know who our next target must be."

* * *

-The Danger Room-

Santo took a right hook to the face. Naruto still cringed at all the ones he took from Sakura all those years trying to show his affection for her. But this was a different situation. Santo was punched so hard he went straight through the wall, but he got right back up. He had to give the guy credit though, he was determined to keep going, even after getting his hand lopped off by the blow.

* * *

-Outside the Danger Room-

Some of the other students were waiting for the Danger Room to be available for them to relieve some of their stress after the bus incident, and they wanted to get stronger.

"Didn't you guys get enough of this room when it tried to kill us?"

"Shhhh!"

"What's going on in there?"

Rockslide was shot through the wall, surprising everyone on the other side.

"Aaaaahh!"

"Hey guys." Santo ran straight back in after saying so.

"Looks like Ms Frost is training her team."

"Oh."

* * *

-The Danger Room-

"Santo, why did you rush in? Seriously, you analyze your opponent before making a move." Naruto shook his head at the golem, granted he did the same thing in the past for many a times.

"And you dropped this." Colossus threw back the arm that he tore off the younger student. Granted it didn't hurt and it could be reattached very easily, but he needed to be taught a lesson.

_"This is a simple exercise...all you have to do is knock Colossus down."_ Emma was up in the control room overlooking the whole ordeal.

Naruto understood the reason behind it. How do you beat an opponent that has years' worth more experience, heightened strength, and as an added bonus...steel strong skin? That was what made things tricky, he knew that he couldn't use any of his ocular Jutsu for this, as it would've been over kill and would make the whole point of the exercise worthless.

"Now, let's try this again."

* * *

-2.43 miles away from the Institute.-

Matthew Risman had been sent to take out an omega level threat to their plans, he found the perfect spot to set up his rifle, far away and out of sight from any and every one that might be able to stop him from completing his objective that the Reverend had given.

"Location locked. Joseph, do you copy? BFR's do not seem to be sensing me."

_"Good. Then your implant is functioning the same as the muties'...the Sentinels can't detect you, and their telepaths can't read you, either."_

_"Matthew, this is the Reverend. The target will be in range within the hour."_

"Understood."

_"Do the Lord proud, my son."_

"Yes, Father."

* * *

-The Purifiers HQ-

"Eden approaches...and only a handful of Satan's children stand between us and paradise. Go through the vision again and then prepare for our guest. He will soon return to us." He needed to see the vision once more to confirm that things would go along the way he wanted them to, and to show the proof he needed to convince their 'visitor' that this what was meant to be.

"Reverend...are you sure that's wise? We were barely able to salvage the device last time, and..." The last time, the machine almost powered up and tried to escape, but they were able to shut it down in time.

"That's enough! God himself speaks through me! You will not question my orders. This moment has been predestined and nothing will prevent it!"

"Reverend...I-I know, but..."

"Joseph, now is not the time to lose faith. The Lord has set us on this path and will not abandon us before we complete the..."

Unbeknownst to the radical racial group and their leader. The machine continued to view them and bide it's time, until it could fully be restored to what it once was by its creator. There was also the matter of the one that had acquired several components of it's already damaged body, something also it would have the maker fix with the rest of its body. It couldn't properly register it as either human, mutant, or something else, it more than likely had technology to scramble sensors.

* * *

-The Danger Room-

"Clumsy." Colossus just grabbed the punch that Rockslide had thrown and then grabbed his head to slam him down unconscious to the ground.

Elixir had a large steel beam, just light enough to pick up and wield, and heavy enough to do some actual damage to someone. He tried to hit Colossus from the back which wasn't a bad idea, Naruto thought. But when your opponent is pretty much made of steel, then it was rather useless.

"There are eight of you. Work as one."

Colossus had snatched Josh from his back without even turning around, and had him by the neck of his shirt, with Josh trying to wrestle out of his grip.

"You are letting your emotions controlling you Elixir. Anger will not defeat me. Use your abilities."

"But I don't have any abilities! How am I supposed to stop you?"

"You above all the others could stop me with just a touch." Though he was wrong. From what he saw of the recording of the Danger Room session from the new student, Naruto as he was named, could easily do it as well. He meant to help Elixir realize that his powers had other uses, through his own way of course.

"But until you can think clearly. You are only a threat to yourself." He tossed him aside to the wall, until Naruto caught him with his Susanoo's arm and letting him down close to Santo.

"Thanks..." The scowl still ever prominent on his face.

"Try to get Rockslide up, if you can." He motioned for him to do, but whether he heard or simply chose to ignore him, he didn't move from his spot, still looking towards the steel skinned X-Man.

He saw that Surge was about to charge, but she hesitated for a second and thought about what she should do until she noticed that Mercury and X-23 behind him about to spring and attack, so she decided to attack from a distance.

"Fall."

She shot her electricity straight at him in an attempt to make an opening for her female teammates, and a small expression of pain appeared on his face. But disappeared to one of ignoring it.

"Uh...shouldn't you be screaming in pain?"

"I have been hurt far worse. Your concern Surge, should be for your teammates."

"What?"

Colossus apparently saw both the girls with his peripherals, he grabbed Mercury and slammed her into X-23 back towards Surge's line of attack, incapacitating them both.

"No! No! Stop!"

"Your enemies will not stop. They will never stop! You're running out of teammates Surge."

"What am I supposed to do?!"

"You and Naruto are the team's leaders, Surge. This your burden. Both of you." Naruto noticed the emphasis the Russian had put on the word burden. And he had also noticed that Josh had vanished from his sight. And when he noticed what he was doing, he thought 'crazy idiot'.

"You have to find a way to win. If you don't, your friends will die."

"Shut up!" Josh had attacked Colossus one more time. From behind and unarmed. Naruto rushed in one more time, starting to think that the guy was crazy or something. But he was reminded of his first day on Team 7 with Kakashi sensei when he kept coming at him out of anger when he insulted him on how he wasn't much of a threat.

"Elixir, I admire your persistence…" Colossus just pulled him off his shoulders and then stuck him to the wall using a steel beam. "But you are going to get yourself hurt."

"Get your hands off me! Let me go!" Naruto face palmed. This was a freakin' disaster. And he was sure of it when he noticed Julian still standing there, haven't done anything from the start of the battle. Ignoring Nori's words, he just ordered to Sooraya to attack Colossus, while he decided stand firm and try to see what the two Hellion's had up their sleeve...if they even had something to go on.

"Dust, Hellion, Naruto...we can still do this..."

"Yeah, you're both doing a real bang-up, 'captains'. You just basically wasted two of your own, and he's just standing and watching not doin' a thing."

She wasn't an idiot. She had a feeling that he was trying to come up with a strategy to use against him, but his options were slipping every time a team mate went down.

"Don't rush in and be an idiot Julian. We need a winning strategy, that's the point of this whole thing." He still had his eyes fixated on Colossus, still trying to come up with a strategy with the teammates he still had left. He could just use Susanoo, but just like he said, it was counterproductive to the exercise.

"He's right Julian...look, you may not like it, but we're in this together. Now follow our lead."

"The Hellions don't need either of you Ashida. Dust...get him." He didn't know the blonde very well, he just wanted to spite Nori though, so he really didn't mean to insult him.

"Sooraya wait!"

She started to turn her body into the sand and began to create a whirlwind around Colossus, in an attempt to blind him from seeing Hellion's attack.

"Your abilities are impressive, Dust...but they're being used poorly."

He grabbed a water hose out of the ground and began to hose down the sand into mud reforming Dust back into her human form.

"Ahhhhh!"

"You followed the wrong leader."

"Hellion stop! We have to work together!"

Then, finally Julian decided to do something.

**"What a fool. He really needs to get the stick out of his ass." **The fox was really disappointed in these mutant kids...the Genin from their world that he had seen act within teams were like Jonin compared to these wimps.

"All right, X-Men. It's time for you…" He let out all of the power from his telekinesis, wrecking everything around him. "…to go down!"

Except Colossus didn't budge one bit. "I don't think so." The X-Man just walked through his telekinetic field like it was a flower field, and punched him into Surge. He groaned. And Emma Frost decided to step into the room at last, her eyes on him.

"Naruto…why haven't you done anything yet?" She asked him. She had a feeling that his reply was going to be an intelligent response for the rest of his team.

"Because if this were a real battle and Colossus had been going all out, I would have been the only one still alive, right now. I knew that from the beginning of the fight." Naruto sighed, he turned to focus his eyes on Julian. "The whole deal of this was to make us complete the mission as a team, as in, working together to get everyone out alive in the process. We haven't done any of that. To those like you, you're still inexperienced about real fights; teamwork is your best option."

"Those like us?! What about you?! You…"

"I've learned about working in a team long ago." Naruto interrupted Julian's rant before he could even start it. He then turned to Colossus. "And I've learned how to fight by myself, if and when I have to. Now, I just have to knock steel skin down, which I know I can. But as I've already said, the exercise was a failure."

"Actually, I'd like you to carry on. I'm sure that the rest of the team can learn from what your about to do." Said Emma. Naruto immediately dropped into a battle stance, and planned out his solo strategy quickly. The other students that were still conscious were rather surprised that he was going to take on Colossus alone just as they had done, and failed. They wondered if there were others like him.

Naruto decided to test out whether or not he had the Wood Style, so he formed the hand seals that he would see Yamato use when he used the Jutsu. And to everyone's own shock they saw that there were four wood like branches coming out of his back and they were growing into a replica of Naruto himself.

Colossus steeled himself for what the new student might do, given his abilities.

"Your abilities are impressive, but an increase in numbers won't help you."

Naruto smirked at the statement. "You never know...I could just end up proving you wrong."

The clones rushed in like the other students and were effectively pommeled to wooden bits by the X-Man, only one Wood Clone remained and was grabbed by the Russian as he tried to attack from above.

"You have yet to prove me wrong."

"Really? Cause I think I just did buddy." The clone had a smirk on his face when he started to turn into wood, leaving a confused face on Colossus. He was surprised when another clone had burst from beneath him, upsetting his balance a bit as he was struck in the jaw by the clone's fist.

"Like I said, I proved you wrong." The clone then burst into a blinding light making Colossus loose his sight for a bit, but as he got it back he felt a hard kick delivered to his gut that sent him flying a few feet and on his back. He decided to pull that little trick that he did with Neji back in the Chunin exams.

"Uggh...very good. I was wrong, you used the clones as diversions and weapons to create an opening, rather than additional forces, while you yourself made the actual attack."

Naruto held out his hand to the downed X-Man to help him up.

There were multiple reactions from the X-kids within the room. Santo was still unconscious, drooling on the floor. Sooraya, Cess, and Nori were in awe at what he had done. Laura observed him with analytical eyes. Julian was gritting his teeth, his head staring down to the ground. Josh was grasping hard on the same steel beam that he had earlier while looking at the ground. Emma decided that they had trained enough for the day.

"This exercise is over. The objective was accomplished, however six of you died for defeating a single enemy. It is not an acceptable result. That was…enlightening" Colossus changed back into his human form as Emma turned to him. "Thank you for your help, Peter. It is always appreciated."

"Of course, Emma. Neither of us wish to bury any more children." And then Naruto knew that Josh had gone crazy, due to the expression on his face. But mostly because he had just struck Peter behind the head with the metal bar right after he had turned back to normal "Uh!"

"Then, why didn't you save them?! I saved your life! Why couldn't you save theirs?!"

"Damn, Foley…" Naruto suddenly grabbed him with that weird giant black arm, slamming against him lightly to the wall "And damn newbie…"

"Have you lost your mind?!" Naruto had done so due to wanting to show to both Julian and Nori the day before about not attacking comrades and friends, and wanted them to learn a bit on what he was trying to get to Josh. Plus Emma had just turned into her Diamond Form and looked pissed off. And she would have probably hurt him far worse. He then released the Susanoo, pulled him by his shirt and raised him above his head. "Hitting him behind his head with a steel beam? You easily could have killed him!" He shook him a bit, although that was an understatement. "I don't know what the hell has gotten into you. You can't go around hitting your comrades! You never do that!"

"Naruto enough. Put him back on the ground." Naruto stopped because of Emma's order. But when he was about to do so. "No, wait. Not yet. Keep him up for a bit longer." He frowned. He was confused for a bit. Emma turned to Josh. "Elixir, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll erase every happy memory you have. Do you understand me?"

"Nnngh…" The force of being slammed against the wall by a giant arm, had made him lose the wind in his chest. And the shaking had been a little too violent.

"I'll take that as a yes." Emma turned her head to Naruto again. Her expression told him to 'let him down'. "And as of right now, you're off the team, until you can control your emotions."

Josh coughed and massaged his throat, while Emma turned around, to the door, and walked through it along with Colossus.

"The rest of you will continue tomorrow and I expect your performance to be much improved." She left her last words at that. Naruto stared at Josh for a bit more before sighing.

"What a drag..." He really felt like Shikamaru right now.

Santo began to stir and pick himself up from where Colossus had put him down. "Uhhh...ok, l-let's do this..."

Naruto simply shook his head.

* * *

-Eagle Plaza; Dallas, Texas-

"No! No! No! No! Rraaaa! Dammit!"

So far his latest project was going so slow and had several setbacks, this being one of them when it literally, went up in flames. He grabbed the fire extinguisher to put out the flames, hopefully to save some of his work so he wouldn't get set back so many steps.

"Dammit." He then went back to his drawing board to see what had gone wrong with it, or rather, where he had gone wrong, as he was the one that doing the building, he would make mistakes.

* * *

-The Institute's Med Bay-

"...it's just with Dani gone, I don't know who else to talk to."

Laurie had come down to talk to Sam as no one else would be able to understand where she was coming from in terms of the conversation. She was really worried for Josh when she heard he almost killed Mr Rasputin, and Naruto had slammed him against the wall berating him harshly for lashing out in anger at the teachers.

"It's ok Laurie. I'm always here to listen."

"It's Josh..."

"Yeah, I heard about what happened today."

"No, it's not just that, Sam...he's so angry...ever since the attack...he's been different."

"All of us are."

"But not like him. I'm really worried...and he won't talk to me. You were there. You saw what happened, maybe he would talk to you." She hoped that his point of view would be enough to convince Josh to stop blaming himself for the attack.

"I can try, but I think you should tell him how you feel, you know. Just...uh, just...I...aw God, I'm sorry Laurie...can you turn down the pheromones a little? That's you, right?" She was doing her best to stop the tears from coming, but was otherwise unable to do, and ended up subconsciously using her pheromone ability on Sam, who also began to cry a bit.

"Sorry."

While the two were talking, Jay had snuck out of his med room and made his way back upstairs to Sooraya's room to speak with her, as he trusted her the most out of all of his friends, with what he needed to tell her.

He still felt rather weak, despite his healing factor slowly but surely helping him out. He finally stumbled to her room and gave it a faint knock on the door, with Sooraya answering.

"Jay? What are you doing here? You should be in the med bay..."

"Sooraya..."

"Please, we must take you back."

"Sooraya...please...stop..."

"No. Dr McCoy can help you, we need to..."

"I think I may have done something horrible. I..."

He stopped talking once he realized that Laura was also in the room, right next to them.

"Sooraya, can we talk alone?"

Laura complied without question, seeing that he wasn't going to say anything in front of a stranger. It was only logical in her experience.

"Thank you, Laura."

She shut the door quietly as she left, but she decided to stay outside to listen in on what he had to say.

"What is it, Jay. What have you done?"

"I-I was trying to save everyone. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

"Jay, you aren't making sense."

"I know...but I'm gonna try and find out what went wrong. I'm gonna try and fix things. Sooraya, if I don't come back...tell Sam and Paige that I love them."

He handed her a piece of paper crumpled up.

"Jay, you're scaring me."

"You're a beautiful person, Sooraya."

Jay had finished with that and turned around to leave the room and opened up the door to let Laura back in. As she entered, she caught a small scent off of him.

Jay closed the door in silence to avoid waking anyone else up for the night, letting Laura warn Sooraya.

"Don't trust him."

"What? Why?"

"Because he smells of death."

She went back to her bed thinking on what would happen most likely to the boy.

As she did, Sooraya opened up the piece of paper crumpled up that Jay had given to her, and read the contents: 221 N Main, Salem Center.

* * *

-Outside-

Laurie had been searching for Josh all night, and she had finally managed to get a hold of him out on the front lawn. His mood hadn't changed at all since the funeral.

"Josh, wait!" She had managed to speak to him finally, but she didn't know if it had been because of her persistence or because he had decided to listen to her. She wanted to think that he wanted to hear her voice and her words, but wasn't so sure of it. The evidence pointing towards it as he didn't turn around, though.

"Nori told me what you did in the training exercise." He just kept on walking.

"Josh, what's going on with you? Why won't you talk to me? Look, I know it's my fault and I'm sorry." Her fault? How the hell did she come out with that explanation?

"For what?" Josh seemed at least as curious, but he snapped at Laurie regardless.

"For telling you to train. You don't belong on Ms Frost's team. You're better than that."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, I do. All this…this violence and fighting…it isn't you, Josh. You're a healer. What you do is beautiful. This…this is just ugly and wrong.

Josh paused as well, but not for much. He turned to her with the most anger she had seen in him. "If I'm a healer, why couldn't I fix your arm? Why could Naruto do that, and not me?"

"Kevin held it too long…there was nothing left to heal. You know that. To be honest...I don't know how he did it, but he just did...Professor McCoy said that he somehow brought the energy back to my cells, they were dead when Kevin touched them, and you couldn't heal dead cells." Laurie decided to be a little more assertive. She placed her hands on his arms and held him. But Josh's expression didn't soften at all. "My arm…the bus…they weren't your fault." Josh got even angrier, if possible, and pushed her away.

"Don't tell me about the bus, Laurie! You weren't there!" His tone of voice went from bad to worse within a split second.

"I know, but Sam told me what happened…how you tried to save everyone." Even when she was holding him, Laurie didn't want to scream at him. She was trying to keep things from escalating further.

"Yeah, I tried…but everyone I touched was dead…everyone but DJ. I could feel him dying…his life bleeding out of him. I held on to it with everything I had…I didn't let go…my hands, my bones and blood burned but I never let go…but he still died…"

"Josh…" Laurie tried to say something but she was rudely interrupted.

"And when he died, he took a piece of me with him. A piece of me died, too. Now I feel cold…dead…empty. And I'll never get that piece back…never!" He turned his head to Laurie again, glaring at her in anger. She was holding back the tears as best she could.

"So whoever did this to us…to me…is going to die." That shook Laurie worse than all the other words. But the worst was still to come. "And I'm going to be the one who kills them…"

"Josh, no." She was using a begging, sad, low tone. But he was about to drop the final bomb on her.

"You don't know anything about me, Laurie! So stay the hell out of my way!" A poor choice of words.

* * *

-Matthew Risman-

He watched carefully as the event played out in front of him, the two spawn of Satan were in a heated argument. Pointless in his mind, as they would both be sent to be judged before God soon enough, and cast into Hell.

As soon as he saw them enter a nice open spot, he concentrated until they were both still and unmoving. He didn't want to make a mistake in shooting and missing, so he took the shot on the girl from behind.

"Paf".

A clean shot to the head. He began to dismantle his rifle as fast as possible and called in to the Reverend.

"It's done, Father."

* * *

-Sooraya and Laura-

"Allah give me strength..." Sooraya was preparing to go help Jay out should he be put into a dangerous position for going to 'fix' what he had done.

"Why do you pray?" She was curious about what she believed in, as she had assassinated several people for what they believed in, but she never knew why she was ordered to do so.

"I give praise to Allah and ask him for guidance as he is the creator of all things."

"But Dr Sarah Kinney is my creator." She wanted clarification on the matter.

"Yes, but Allah created everything, including her. Our lives, our destinies, everything is created and guided by Allah." It was difficult to say the least, to explain the reasoning and belief behind Allah.

"So...God is my creator. He is responsible for my life?"

"Yes."

"Then he made me a killer...a murderer. He made me kill my mother."

"No, I...Allah's wisdom is beyond our comprehension. We cannot question or judge him." It truly was difficult, but she was a very patient person. Unfortunately, she had no time to help her new friend understand.

"Why?"

"Laura, I will help you understand later, but right now I must find Jay."

"I will go with you." Odds are, she would need the backup when the enemy would ambush her.

"No. He came to me alone for help." This was something she felt that she needed to do alone.

"It's a trap." She wanted Sooraya to see the truth behind what was going on.

"W-why would you say that?" She was shocked that she would suggest such a thing, but she knew that she had a very analytical mind.

"Because it's what I would do."

"That may be the case, but Jay is my friend. He would not betray me."

"But..."

"And I do not believe Allah wishes me to die...but if anything does happen, it is as it is meant to be." If that were the case then. Laura would have to act, and Sooraya may not like it, but it is as she said, 'Allah does not want her to die'.

* * *

-Scott &amp; David-

"I'm sorry...what?"

"We've decided that it's in your best interest to stay at the Institute, David. With the attack in the human students, as well as the presence of the Sapien League and copycat killers going after former mutants...you're a target."

Scott had called David's family ahead of time before he asked David to talk with him about recent events and discussed the best possible solution for him, as his safety was his number one concern along with the rest of the students.

"And this is the solution? No offense, but this isn't exactly the safest place on Earth, Mr Summers. I'm supposed to go to school...my family..."

"Your family agrees with the decision. Besides…would you really want to put them at risk?"

"I just…I'm so useless here. But it doesn't matter, does it? This has already been decided." Without his powers, he felt more than useless….out of place was more like it though.

"I'm sorry, David."

"Professor Xavier always wanted to admit human students. I just didn't think the first one would be me."

The next thing they knew Beast had barged in a state of panic and had an expression of worry and disbelief.

"Scott!"

"Hank? What's…"

"There's been another attack! Come quickly! And David…you should come, too."

* * *

-Naruto-

Naruto was in his room trying to come up with strategies to work in tandem with his teammates, though it wasn't that difficult given some of their abilities. He could use his water and fire styles with Surge's electricity; X-23 was easily on par with Sasuke back in their late Genin days as far as hand-to-hand combat went, perhaps better since he wasn't able to really see much; Hellion could use his telekinesis to accelerate anything that he threw; Rockslide had mass to deal out major damage; Dust could change her body into sand, and could manipulate it like Gaara; Mercury could form and create metallic weapons from her body. And Elixir had been banned from the team, so he became the primary healer for them. He guessed that he could just create a clone just for support, while he himself was the primary fighter.

He was thinking back to the little outing or 'date' that Nori had teased him with consistently, he had with Rachel two days before she left to space, he smiled a bit at the memory.

_-Flashback-_

"_I-I'm sorry…that was just too funny." She just calmed down a bit after hearing Naruto tell her about his first day with Team 7._

"_It's not funny!" His face was red with embarrassment and a little bit of annoyance with the fact that she laughed her ass at him to the point of almost crying after being on the receiving end of '1000 Years of Death' from Kakashi sensei; unlike the one he gave Gaara, Kakashi simply gave him a painful butt poke…right up the ass that sent him flying ten feet and into the air._

"_Yes it was, come oooon, admit it. You also thought it was funny a__ tad__ bit, otherwise you wouldn't have told me." They were hanging out at the mall again back in the coffee shop. She enjoyed his company honestly, he was comforting, friendly, and a little cute if she had anything to say, the whisker marks just added to that factor._

"_**Make a move kit."**_

"_That again? No way, I like living thank you very much." __He had to give the fox credit. He was persistent at that._

"_**You never know what could come of this kit. It never hurts to see what could be."**_

* * *

-Elsewhere in a distant Galaxy-

"Achoo! Ugh." Rachel had a rather out of place sneeze while recovering from their last bout with the Shi'ar loyal to Vulcan, inside the Starjammers ship.

"Hey, you alright Rachel?" Alex wanted to make sure that she didn't catch something deadly while they were out in the galaxy exposed to a vast amount of deadly objects, species, and substance that they could come in contact with and become sick rather easily, given their immune systems weren't developed to withstand extra-terrestrial diseases.

"Yeah, I'm alright Alex. I just felt a little weird, that's all."

"Maybe someone's talking about you…maybe a cute guy you met before back home." Lorna decided to poke a little fun at her for a bit to lighten up the mood before they entered battle once again.

"Don't even start on that…" She was red with embarrassment. "L-Let's just get back to planning out our next move on Vulcan, 'kay."

* * *

-Present-

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard some huge commotion going on outside the school, and as he looked outside, he saw that multiple people were gathered around something, and the Sentinels had come to investigate what the deal was.

He ran outside and saw that another tragedy had occurred on their doorstep. Laurie, the girl whose arm he regenerated, and one of the nicest people he ever met, was killed on the front lawn.

He saw that Logan was holding back Josh from doing anything stupid, but the boy was still struggling to wriggle free and had the most shocked face on above everyone else gathered around them.

"LAURRIIIEEEE!"

Nori was cradling Laurie in her arms, just trying to deal with another loss to their little 'family'.

"Nononononono…"

Bishop tried to maintain order outside, so that things wouldn't get out of hand, he didn't know if the shooter had left the scene, and after the bus, he didn't want a repeat of the incident. But soon Scott, Hank, and David arrived to the scene.

"Everybody inside! Now!"

"Bishop what's…oh no."

"Laurie?"

David rushed immediately to see what had happened to her, only to see that his fears had been realized, but he still couldn't accept it, his teammate, his friend had been murdered in cold blood.

"David I…"

"No Laurie…not you…" His voice was soft in shock and disbelief.

Josh finally managed to wriggle free out of Logan's grip and shocked him with some sort of thing that gave him some pretty bad looking hands, hinting what they had originally theorized about his powers.

"Kid…you gotta pull it together…"

"LET ME GO!"

"Logan?" Colossus was curious as to how he managed to get out of the adamantium man's grip.

"NOOOOOOO!"

Scott decided that enough was enough for the night, and that they need to get things cleaned up, and have Laurie given some peace, alongside of contacting her mother.

"Peter…Logan…we need to get the kids inside. Josh…"

Josh was too wraped up with Laurie's death that he didn't even listen to the Headmaster or anyone else around him for that matter.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…please don't go…please don't leave me…"

"We have to get inside, we're too exposed."

"Scott!" Cannonball had just been looking all over for his brother, and then saw that everyone was gathering outside and though that maybe he was there.

"What is it, Sam?"

"I...oh, my God...is that...is that Laurie? I-I just talked to her earlier, I..."

"Sam..."

"I can't find Jay."

Naruto was still processing what he was seeing, and wished he could have done something to stop this from happening, until he heard a voice that couldn't recognize.

"**Use it."**

He wasn't sure what came over him, but he put his hands together to form the sign for the Jutsu.

**"Rinne Tensei."**

He suddenly started to feel rather weak and powerless for a bit, but he still felt a strong life force keeping him on this side of the abyss. When he was finished, he began to fall to the ground into unconsciousness.

Everyone else that had just witnessed what he had done. He placed his hands together and said some words, and soon Laurie's wound began to heal rapidly and she began to stir, while Naruto's hair turned as white as snow, and then he collapsed on the ground. Everyone was wide eyed in disbelief and astonishment. Their jaws were hung as low as they could go, and their attentions went back and forth between the two Laurie, whom they thought had been killed, and Naruto, the strange new student that apparently had the ability to revive the dead.

The masked man watched the event play out and wasn't worried a bit at the fact that someone that should have been dead, come back to life. "It doesn't matter, she's no real threat with her abilities…just another insect that more than likely I'll have to smash against the wall when the time comes. Though I think I should stick around for a little while longer to see the end of this little crusade…that, and the reaction from Risman and Stryker will be priceless…once they see the dead walking around again."

"I need a 12-pack to get over what I just saw." Logan really did, because he knew that dead was dead, and nothing natural could change that. He headed inside to do just that.

"Um…what happened? Why's everyone looking at me? And why is Naruto's hair white?" Laurie wanted to know what had happened from arguing with Josh, to everyone surrounding them outside.

"_Umm….Command? You might want to come check this out, like seriously, I think that I might actually be on some sort of drug I got slipped while I was off duty last night after getting transferred her."_

Scott was shocked that Naruto was able to do that same technique that Nagato had used before he died. And even more shocked that Naruto didn't die when he used it, as he and Emma both knew that it traded life for life, and that was a fact to the technique.

Still in shock of what he was seeing, Sam spoke up for everyone. "Scott, I think you need to come clean here. What exactly is he? How did he do that? How did he bring Laurie back from the dead?"

"I was….dead…?"

* * *

_**And that is the latest chapter for the story. Now as I said before, I'm considering on adding Rachel into the poll on my profile. No this will still be a single pairing story, not a harem. So don't ask me to turn it into one. And as such, this is the link to her profile: www. comicvine rachel-grey/4005-3566/. **_

_**(Eliminate the spaces in the address.)**_

_**Also, some of you may have caught on to the shogi scene that I had written between Naruto and Surge. Yeah, I did kinda use it from the Shippuden anime when Shikkaku and Shikamaru after Asuma was killed by Hidan and Kakuzu. I found that scene to be really powerful and profound to shake someone out of their 'tough guy' expression and turn them into a crying child like Shikamaru, it was very well done, and I loved it. I wish Masashi had implemented it into the manga as well.**_

_**So let me know what you guys think so far as the next chapter will have some many deaths, and they will be on the Purifiers' side, so expect some pants to be shat at the site of Naruto's Jutsu. Again thank you guys for staying with me thus far, and continue to read, review, and favorite. Thank you :)**_


	7. Chapter 6: Crusade Part 2

_**Glad to see that many of you liked the last chapter guys, now this is the chapter that will end the Crusade arc and begin Nimrod. Also, I've decided to add Rachel Grey into the voting poll, and several people have decided to change their votes to her, so I you guys are having second thoughts on your votes, don't hesitate to ask me, I'm keeping a record of anyone that has changed their vote.**_

_**Another thing is that some people are confused on the usage of the Rinne Tensei, some of ya'll I have clarified the matter, but I'll go ahead clear things up for ya'll.**_

_**The Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique (Rinne Tensei) is a reincarnation ninjutsu used through the Outer Path, which can infuse new life into the bodies of those who have died in exchange for the user's own life.**_

_**To perform this technique, the user summons the King of Hell, which then releases the souls of the deceased from its mouth. With their rejuvenated bodies acting as an anchor, the deceased individuals' souls are able to leave even the crossroad between life and the afterlife, returning back to their physical vessels. While using this technique, the user is severely weakened and their hair becomes white due to overexertion of their chakra. Ultimately, once the technique is finished, the user inevitably dies.**_

_**This technique can also be used on people brought back to life by Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation, transforming the debris and ash that forms their corpse vessel into a real body of living flesh and blood, even if they have been dead for many years. However, there appear to be limitations to this usage, as while the rest of Madara's body was made real, his eyes instead crumbled into dust upon his resurrection.**_

_**The exact range and power of this technique are unknown, but on separate occasions it has targeted a large number of recently deceased individuals and a single individual who has been dead for more than a decade.**_

_**When Nagato was preparing to use this technique, Konan feared for the worst due to him being low on chakra, implying he could have potentially survived its usage. However, the fourth databook clarified that usage of this technique comes at the cost of the user's life.**_

_**Madara — and Obito under the guise of Madara — noted that this technique was supposed to be used to revive him. Madara would eventually be reincarnated anyway, and expressed surprise and disappointment that his return didn't go as planned, as only a living person can become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki. Eventually, Black Zetsu successfully forced Obito to perform this technique on Madara.**_

_**Despite using this technique, Obito was able to live a little longer thanks to Black Zetsu's life force, and subsequently because of Naruto Uzumaki's Six Paths Yang Power, though both of them knew that Obito would ultimately die because of the technique's side effect.**_

_**And this is all directly from the wiki that is up to date on the Jutsu, so I wanted there to be a drawback on him using the Rinne Tensei, so instead of dying, he would just slip into a short mini-coma. And in this story, there's only one person that can keep him on this side of life. It's just how I wanted things to go for the story.**_

_**Now that's all said and done on with the story! Also I don't own Naruto nor any Marvel related rights.**_

* * *

Chapter 6: Crusade Part 2

* * *

-The Purifiers' Church-

"Well done, Matthew. Once we eliminate the Muslim, the vision can come to pass...and the boy has guaranteed her arrival."

"I don't believe it!"

"What?"

"His wings! They've regrown! He couldn't have survived the surgery, most people can't let alone day after! It doesn't make any sense, the X-Men have no healers that advanced within their ranks!"

Stryker paused a bit and his eyes grew wide at the sight of the young Guthrie boy, he had his wings once again, but he recomposed himself, not wanting to be caught off guard.

"Never underestimate these creatures Jack. I made that mistake once, but never again. Come, let's collect our guest."

Down below, the technicians' were experiencing some technical difficulties with the machine that gave them the visions necessary to win the war against Satan's army.

"The device is powering up!"

"Dammit! I told him this would happen!"

They saw it beginning to reawaken once more and more than likely, they couldn't stop it this time as a monitor popped up with very specific information:

_Mutant Life Signs Detected_

_Target - Jay Guthrie_

_Protocol - Terminate Terminate Terminate_

Back at the entrance they did their beat to keep a straight face at the sight of a pair of new red wings where the originals were in fact, amputated from the mutant. Stryker knew that he came looking for answers and knew that the Muslim heathen would not be far behind, as he trusted her more than any of his other compatriots.

"Welcome back, Joshua."

"Reverend...you said that you would help save my friends...but..."

"It's all right, son. All will be explained."

"SHUT IT DOWN! SHUT IT DOWN!"

"Wh-where are you taking me?"

"KILL THE POWER NOW!"

"No. Do nothing. The boy must bear witness. Joshua, I told you when we first met that you were a part of the Lord's plan...well, now you can see for yourself."

"Oh my God..." Jay looked on in horror of what he was now standing in front of.

"I was a soldier...a crusader...one of God's chosen to fight in the war against Satan. But then I strayed. An X-Man caused me to doubt my role in this war. She convinced me to cast myself into Limbo, and worse...she convinced me that God was wrong. I had questioned everything I knew to be true...and for my actions, the Lord punished me. I begged him for forgiveness, but he answered my prayers with silence. I was lost...and thought I was forsaken. I believed that God had cast me out of his kingdom. But I was wrong. God gave me a second sign. A gift. One greater than I could have ever imagined."

"Nimrod..." Jay could say nothing else for the moment as a mutant killing machine was in front of him right now this very moment, deactivated on one hand, but very unpredictable overall.

"I examined the device for months...inside it was technology I couldn't begin to understand...but it had historical data that I could access. The records from its past would light my way to our future. A future where humanity had won the war against Satan's spawn. Where Mutant filth was hunted down an destroyed. But even as I watched this perfect vision of the future, I saw that it was changing...that it was somehow being erased. And the longer I studied the device, the more far-reaching these changes became. Mutants were growing in number..they even formed their own nation. The sons and daughters of Satan were destroying this future Eden before my very eyes. But then I discovered something...an event...a single moment that could set the future back on track...most called it 'M-Day'. I called it salvation. But it would take more than this one event to save the future. So I began to planning...setting events in motion that would take Eden back from your kind. I combed through the future obituaries and saved lives that meant to be lost. With each soul saved, I added to God's army. I also learned of the mutants that were preventing Nimrod's future from forming." **(AN: This jackass gives one hell of a speech it makes my damn headache just typing the damn thing up.)**

"But why? Why are you doing this? Those kids on the bus were human, they weren't mutants...not anymore..."

"Ah, but they were the most dangerous of all. Those kids were the 'humans' that would infiltrate society and create sympathy for mutants. The very individuals that would hand our world over to Satan. But Nimrod had no record of these demons in human skin. That's one of the reasons I needed you, Jay."

Jay's eyes widened as far as they could go in realization that he was the one that had basically all of the his friends on the bus when he told Stryker what was happening that night. He spun around in disbelief that a 'holy man' would commit such heinous acts of murder.

"No...you said if I gave you my old wings...if you returned them to God...that you could save my friends."

"Those without souls cannot be saved."

"This is a robot! A Sentinel! Not God!"

"Yes. The Lord works in mysterious ways."

* * *

-Eagle Plaza; Dallas, Texas-

He finally finish building it, after days of almost nonstop work and many disastrous setbacks, he could finally relax for the moment as the data from O*N*E's database uploaded into the model he customly made himself. He tuned into the news to see what was on CNN at the moment, and just his rotten luck, it was on the Institute at the moment.

_"The media blackout is still in place around the Xavier Institute. The Office of National Emergency maintains that the Sentinels are there for protection of the mutants, collectively known as the 'X-Men'. Though from our location, outside the no-fly zone, we've been able to catch glimpses of the Sentinels that have been stationed around the mutant haven. There has been no official comment from the Xavier Institute since the O*N*E began these protection measures. More and more mutants are arriving each...wait...something is happening...the Sentinels are moving...again, we are reporting heavy Sentinel movement..."_

* * *

-The Church of the Purifiers-

"Behold the vision God granted unto me."

The viewing screen showed a nightmare of the Institute in flames and many people either dead or dying within the chaos.

Santo Vaccaro aka Rockslide was in chunks and pieces. Josh Foley aka Elixir was blown in the chest by napalm. Cessily Kincaid aka Mercury was in a constant state of electrical shock and would loose all brain function within a matter of minutes. Julian Keller aka Hellion was riddle throughout his back with high caliber rounds. Noriko Ashida aka Surge was smashed into the ground and not moving. Laura Kinney aka X-23 was riddled with carbonadium arrows pining her to the ground, neutralizing her healing factor and bleeding out to death. Then a massive sandstorm came and consumed many of the Purifiers within the cruel culling, the flesh was torn from their skin as the sand was intense, and violent; as it all came from Sooraya Qadir aka Dust.

"This is the future."

"Why are you showing me this?"

"Because you need to understand the part you have played in the Lord's endgame. God reveals to me those who would stand in my way. The girl you call Wallflower once stood where the Muslim now stands." Boy would he be in for the shock of his racist life soon.

"She alone defeated my Purifiers. Once removed the Muslim took her place. Now she is the final obstacle that remains...and once dealt with, my Purifiers and I will return the future to the Lord's chosen." But that's only what it wanted the humans and the mutant filth to think in the meantime as it was still building consensus as to what action to take first: Hunt down the meddler who took part of it's time mechanism for it's own use first, or to hunt down the maker and force it to repair him, then pursue the meddler at full strength.

"The subject is approaching, Reverend."

"And you Mister Guthrie...you have deliverd her to me. Put it on the main monitor."

The screen showed a hidden camera out in the street that focused in on his friend, his mind began to race at the hope that she may yet turn back around and save herself.

"Sooraya...no...stop, please...whatever you're doing..."

"Proceed."

The bullets came out rapidly and silently in the night, as no one heard a sound. Jay watched in horror as one of his closest friends drop dead to the ground.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

"Show me the vision."

The screen still withheld the same vid-log as what was originally there for the moment, confounding the Purifier technician.

"I...I don't understand. She should have disappeared like the Collins girl."

"Give it a moment."

"But it's always instantaneous!"

"Do not doubt the Lord, Jacob."

"But, Reverend in every case the changes were immediate. I...wait...it's happening. But...I still don't understand why..." It was extremely odd, from what he had been working with in the machine, everything was instant to change on the vid-logs, but the Reverend silenced him as he pulled out the very same pistol that he once had considered taking his life with, and aimed it directly at Jay's chest intending to first gloat on his 'victory' over the X-Men, and then end his life.

"Jacob, that's enough. And now, as you prayed, you will be reunited with young Miss Cabot, who burns in hell for loving a mutant. Oh, and Jay. Her death...was no accident. I led those men to the machines that killed her." That was the thing that hurt most. A man considered to be holy, kind, and loving, had just admitted to mass murder and things considered to be heinous acts in the eyes of God...what a sadistic, hypocritical son of a bitch, and a smile on his face to boot.

"No...No! You monster!"

And then the trigger was pulled slugging him right in the chest, there he would bleed out to death, without having a chance to warn the rest of his friends.

"The arrogance of Satan...to create a Demon in the form of an Angel. Come, Jacob. It is time."

* * *

-Naruto-

He began to stir a bit after using the Rinne Tensei, the damn Jutsu took a lot out of him, but he began to feel his chakra began to steadily build back up. He rose up from what looked like a tatami mat bed and covered up with a blanket. He observed his surroundings and saw that there was someone pouring tea from the look from his blurry eyes and behind them was an open window with moonlight shining down into the house.

"You should be a little more careful in who you save next time, it wasn't easy keeping your chakra filled up to a level that would keep you alive. It will be a while before you can use it again though."

He recognized the voice as the one who was the one you told him to 'Use it'; and it was rather feminine. He couldn't see very well as he just got up from what seemed like a long sleep, but the person came closer with what seems like a cup of tea, he came to eventually and took the offers brew, and gulped down its contents.

"Head clear yet?"

"Yeah, thanks...whoever you are..."

"Still don't know who I am, that actually hurt me a bit, even after I saved you from death."

He rubbed his eyes to try and clear his vision from the blurriness and he was able to finally see the one in his company: Kaguya.

His eyes widened at the fact that she was now awake and up close &amp; in arm length of him. He was inside the castle that had sealed her away inside him, and now he was staring death in the face.

"Ahh!"

He leaped back against the wall in fear that she would kill him inside his mindscape to possess his body and begin the process of Infinite Tsukuyomi once more, but she was still sitting down where he once was. This confused him a lot. She saw the look on his face and knew immediately what he was thinking.

"If you're thinking that I've come to kill you, then you're sadly mistaken. I can never roam free the dimensions ever again. It seems Hagoromo had intended that to happen...he may have feared that someone would try and attempt the process once more even after my second defeat. If anything, he probably trusted you far more than the other boy, even after splitting his power between the two of you, he trusts the youngest more so than the eldest."

He relaxed a bit in the event that she was lying about not making a move on his body, he still kept his guard up...just in case.

"How...why...but...?" She held up a hand in a silencing gesture.

"All will be explained in due time...but for now, you should return back up there in the mean time. There's some conflict going on outside, they will need you."

She rose up from her sitting position and made her way over towards him and placed her hand in front of his face, soon he felt a massive surge in his chakra system jolting him out of his mindscape and back into the real world.

As soon as he woke up, he took in his surroundings again. He saw that he was hooked up to some sort of machine with several wires stuck to his forehead, and had an IV hooked into his right arm. He was also alone in the room down in what he remembered to be the med bay. He finally saw that his hair was as white as snow in the reflection of a nearby mirror; the after effect of using the Rinne Tensei from what he remembered after Nagato had used it.

He then was startled a bit by the what sounded like an explosion above him and immediately ripped off the cords and IV connected to him ignoring the pain of the needle, he ran out to help his friends. He stopped to try and open the door, only to see that it was locked, so he decided to do what he did best. Break crap. He broke the door down and flung it to the otherwise embedding it into the wall, and ran upstairs to join whatever fight was raging on.

* * *

-Two Hours before-

"Scott, I think you need to come clean here. What exactly is he? How did he do that? How did he bring Laurie back from the dead?"

"I was….dead…?"

Scott looked to Hank and they both exchanged looks and then a nod in conformation that they would have to explain what had just happened.

"Hank, take Naruto and Laurie to the med bay, make sure that they're both alright. Everyone else needs to come inside, then I'll explain what had just happened."

Hank moved to pick Naruto up and slung him over his shoulder, and motioned Laurie to come with him, she was still staring at her hands for a bit until she noticed that Mr McCoy was waiting for her to follow him. She picked herself up and began to walk with Hank to the med bay with Naruto in tow.

Everyone else was still trying to register what they just saw. Laurie was shot straight through the head, through-and-through...no survival guaranteed unless one had a healing factor on par with Wolverine's, and Laurie had no healing factor whatsoever, so she should be dead. But Naruto apparently somehow had defied that law of science and nature, and brought her back to the land of the living. Shock and awe were on everyone's faces and inside their minds, but ultimately they wanted answers to who and what Naruto was and how he could do things that he could do.

Hank had brought the kids down into the med bay went through several basic doctorial examinations of both teens. Once he was finished up with both, he had Laurie checked out ok, and then turned his attention to Naruto, he brought him to an MRI machine to see if he could perhaps see what was going on inside his skull in case the technique had endangered his brain in some way. After seeing no real damage he had him hooked up to a machine to measure his brain waves, and to his surprise he showed signs of someone that was in a coma. He hooked an IV up to his arm and had him set for care in the event he wouldn't wake up for quite some time, though he could be wrong about the boy given his physiology, but still a precaution nonetheless.

He peered out to the window to see that Scott and many others were outside the room along with Colonel Reyes, Valerie Cooper and a few students outside, no doubt wanting answers to what had just transpired outside.

"Alright Scott. Who is this kid?" Sam wanted to get to the bottom of this soon.

He knew that he couldn't hide it now from everyone, he had hoped that with the way things were already going, that eventually he could introduce Naruto's past with him to the rest of the school, but that plan went out the window as of tonight. "He's from an alternate reality, where his society has been built around a cross between modern times and feudal Japan in a Ninja cultural structure. He came here by a sheer accident in a battle with his team and landed here in our reality. Stephen Strange was the one that brought him here a few hours after he arrived and he's been here ever since."

The faces on everyone was...mixed to say the least: Shock and awe were still on their faces, but there was also curiosity, suspicion, and confliction as well.

The students couldn't believe that the new students was from a parallel reality with a society that seemed unbelievable.

The senior X-Men could still barely register what he was and were curious now more than ever.

The O*N*E heads were more suspicious of the both the boy and the X-Men on why they lied to them when the kid was registered into their systems. Cooper and Reyes both looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

"Scott maybe it's best of we move this conversation to a more private room." Valerie glanced over to the students for a bit to get the message across to him. He didn't need much of anything to know what she meant, he nodded in agreement and had the students head back to their rooms and led the adults to his office.

As they arrived Scott had Emma psychically link them into a shared mindscape so that they could talk in peace without anyone disturbing them.

"Alright now that we have some privacy. What do you want to know about him people."

Cooper was the first to speak up on the matter.

"Why did you falsify his data when he was brought here in the first place? Why hide the truth about this kid?"

"The reason behind that is because his cells are far more advanced than anything we've ever seen before. He isn't a mutant, but he's not entirely human either...or rather like you Miss Cooper, but nor is he like one of the Avengers like Cap or Spider-Man. The reason why he landed in our dimension was because a very powerful man had gotten ahold of the cells of another equally powerful man and integrated them into his own body, plunged the world into war, and nearly brought his civilization to an end. During the battle a tear in the dimensional plane was ripped from the amount of energy being thrown around at each other and then he fell into it, landing here." He omitted the fact that Madara and Hashirama were the previous incarnations of Naruto and his friend/enemy Sasuke deliberately as more than likely O*N*E wouldn't even believe it, much less Kaguya possessing Madara and then forcibly pulling them all into another dimension without even noticing it. 'So far so good.'

Valerie closed her eyes a bit in thought and nodded her head in acceptance of the answer, however it was Reyes who then raised the next question.

"How strong is this kid?" He needed to know if he could become a threat in the future as it was his duty to know who could 'pop a cap' so to speak at anytime. And he needed to be ready if he did. So Emma decided to answer the question with a cool tone.

"He is strong, that much is clear since he has shown that he has the power over life and death as many of you have seen him use, including energy manipulation in various degrees...and that 'reviving the dead' techniques was the first time he used it, might I add. But if you want to know if he's a threat Colonel, then you can sleep well at night. He's as harmless as a fly, but that doesn't mean he won't take action against anyone who threatens him or his friends...extreme action if necessary. He's nearly died several times trying to protect what he finds precious to him and he has killed people before, but in no way has he ever harmed an innocent life throughout his history."

"If you had come to us with the truth about him..."

"He wouldn't have trusted you to begin with. He's rather distrustful of government policies as they've been used in effect to keep him from having a normal life. Not only that, I'm sure that you're aware that Tony Stark also paid a visit here about recruiting us to his little hero hunting squad and he even tried to convince us to have the boy analyzed. Now after the disaster with that Thor clone, do you really think that it would be a good decision to have his cellular structure in your database, given that odds are Stark can easily hack into it, grab Naruto's data, cover his tracks, and be on his merry way to creating a clone of him. The amount of death and destruction would be on a massive scale." That last part was something that needed to be said as she knew the government what not leave such a subject alone.

That answered some of the basics surrounding Naruto, but no doubt there were many others.

Bishop was wondering on how this kid could change the future as he was never once mentioned in his timeline. Perhaps somehow with his arrival, things could change it his future would never come to fruition. Maybe even…she wouldn't be born…who knows…

Betsy was rather interested in how he and the ninja of his world functioned given that it was the basis of his entire society and how powerful they were in terms compared to her and the other ninjas of their reality. She'd have to ask him when he woke up more on what he himself could do.

Valerie had processed enough info to make a decision to try and keep the bridge between them and the X-Men, that, and they would have to know Naruto's full story to really make a full blown decision on how to proceed with the boy, given how much power Emma claimed he wielded.

"Alright, I think that's enough for now. Colonel Reyes and I will head back to O*N*E HQ and discuss the future of the boy, but we'd also like to have Dr. Strange with us if possible, and you too Scott, since you do represent the X-Men and the boy has been seen with you back in Stamford as an official-unofficial member of the primary team that you lead. So there's also that to discuss."

Scott sighed a bit in acceptance of what they would be doing within a few hours. "Alright, I'll have some of the others stay here. Emma you're in charge of things until we get back."

"Understood dear."

Emma soon let the O*N*E personnel out of the mindscape, leaving only the X-Men to talk amongst themselves, with Kitty opting to speak first.

"Ok, I've gotta a feelin' that there's more to this kid's story that you're letting on guys." She had a feeling that Scott and Emma were winging it to try and keep O*N*E off of his back for a very specific reason.

"He has God-like power and he is host to ten very powerful omnipresent beings inside of him, much like how Jean was host to the Phoenix, but in all honesty…he's levels above what she was in her prime. If any of the agencies got wind of what was inside of him, they'd never stop hunting and looking for him to use him as a weapon. Something that he's all too familiar with back in his home reality." Scott tried to choose his words carefully, as he had a feeling that Naruto should be the one to tell them his story, not him or Emma.

Everyone's eyes went wide with even more shock. They just couldn't grasp that someone was that powerful could exist.

"So, can we expect him to go Dark…whatever he has inside of him?" Bishop wanted to know in the event he went crazy just like Jean did…though he prayed to God that he was wrong.

"No. Not possible, they're sealed inside of him, and they're held in check by his own willpower, that and they've befriended him, or rather nine of them have; the other one is a prisoner inside of him. If you truly want to know more about Naruto, you'll have to ask him yourself."

A chill went down their spines as they tried to imagine what ten Phoenix empowered people together looked like on a rampage, as they leveled the entire planet in flames.

"What about O*N*E? You know that they'll want to know more about him." Logan knew that from what they just heard, that the government was not going to let the kid out of their sights, and Stark would drool over the possibility of cloning the kid after creating a clone of Thor himself.

"I'll deal with them, I want you, Kitty and Peter to come with to help vouch for Naruto to stay with us." He needed people with good standing credit to stand up for the boy to keep him here with them since Naruto had come to know them for the past two weeks rather well.

"So when do we leave?"

"In about an hour or so, Bishop, Sam, Hank, I want ya'll to stay and help keep things safe around here for the time being until we get back. Betsy, Kurt, Rogue, take a team to try and track down the manufacturer of the round that killed Laurie, and find Jay. He left the grounds without anyone noticing and we need to know what happened."

"No problem Scott."

"Alright, let's get a move on."

The X-Men then went to their places to move out on their jobs.

* * *

-Emma's Office-

"_Kurt's team will report directly to you Emma. If Val Cooper's agents find anything, they're reporting to Lexington. Joni is chaperoning us."_

"How lucky for you."

"_Keep everyone in their rooms and away from the windows. If there's any sign of trouble…"_

"Between the three remaining Sentinels and the boys here…if there is trouble, I'm sure you'll hear it." Bishop and Cannonball were all geared up to the wazoo to take anyone on in case someone tried to come after them.

* * *

-The Med Bay-

Meanwhile the students went about their own things with David, Josh, Laurie, and the Stepford Cuckoos down in the med bay next to Naruto's room as they couldn't get in as Hank was the one who had locked the door to ensure only he could have access to the comatose student. They wanted to know more about who Naruto was, but even with the strength of the Cuckoo's hive mind, they couldn't make a dent in his head.

"I…I still can't believe I died, and then he brought me back." Laurie was still shaken up from what had happened to her, she was grateful nonetheless to him for saving her. Josh kept to his own thoughts as he couldn't really form any words to speak.

"I still can't believe that he's from some ninja reality." David just found it difficult to believe that someplace like that could even exist, he turned to the Cuckoo's who were trying with all their might to try and penetrate his mind for the truth. "Any luck girls?"

The Cuckoos utilized everything that they had to get inside, but they were being shoved out by some incredible force, and the strain showed on their faces. It was like some massive wall that they were trying to climb with just their hands, and they kept falling down as they barely made any progress.

"No. His mind has a heavy defense..."

"When we try to get through..."

"It's as if we are being shoved out by a tidal wave..."

"And it hurts..." The three said in unison.

They eventually gave up and decided to try again some other time.

* * *

-Santo &amp; Cessily-

The two New X-Men were walking back towards their rooms and staying silent along the way still trying to process what just happened outside two hours prior.

"Aren't we supposed to be in our rooms?" Said Santo. Every once in a while he would use his head. Who would have thought?

"We're checking on Sooraya, Santo." She was worried about their friend as most likely hearing about what Naruto did, she would be in some sort of conflict with her religion. "Nobody's seen her all day."

"I can't believe she's rooming with the clone." The rocky mutant still had to digest the fact that she had cut off his left arm with one clean swipe of one of her foot claws. "I hate her. You hate her too, right?"

"Her name is Laura, Santo. And no, I don't. I can't believe that this is happening." Recent events just seemed straight out of a comic book...huh who would have thought that to begin with?

"I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, Cess." Santo suddenly said, sounding a lot more serious than what he usually was. "You know that, right." Cessily smiled. She looked up to Santo and Julian like they were her big brothers, and it seemed that they treated her like they would with a younger sister. It felt nice.

"I know, Santo…" They had arrived in front of Sooraya's door and just as Cessily was about to knock, massive sounds of explosives going off where heard outside. But she immediately realized it came from the outside. And Santo voiced the right comment for that situation.

"Oh, shit!"

* * *

-Outside-

It was a vision, in the sentinels' pilots' eyes. A bunch of man in robes led by a priest wearing a big pink glowing glove around his right forearm and hand. But they knew deadlier men that looked less threatening.

_"Drop your weapons, lay down on the ground and out your hands behind your heads! Now, old man!"_ They didn't have much patience. Even Julius had been shaken from what had happened, the bus, and the one kid being brought back from the dead. He may have not cared too much for them, but they were still kids. They had been charged with their protection. And in the last days…well…no kid deserved to see thing like that. The 'old man' just smiled.

"I'm afraid we can't do that. You see…we serve a higher authority." His pink gauntlet began to emit a humming noise and waves of pink energy then shot against the sentinels, disabling them and preventing the pilots from exiting and jumping into the fray.

_"What aresquaaaaark."_

"What the hell was that?!" He turned on the intercom. "Slayton! Skylark…shit, are you copying?! All my systems are locked the hell down…I can't move dammit! Is anyone copying this?!"

Stryker still held high above his head the still energized gauntlet and he turned to his Purifiers "Tonight, my children, we win the war between heaven and hell!"

Emma saw what transpired outside and immediately linked the senior X-Men together psychically.

* * *

-Hank McCoy-

_"Henry...your assistance is required right now."_ Hank was running through the halls to help out at the main gate.

"I'm on my way, Emma! I can hear multiple times counting down. We have to...AARRGH!" An explosion went off in the window behind him rendering him unconscious against the wall.

* * *

-Emma Frost-

_"Henry...Henry! Bishop...Henry is alive but unconscious. I can't read the people you're seeing."_ Still telepathically connected to everyone else that could fight.

_"Two men are headed for the 198 encampment...three more flanking the east side."_ Bishop informed her.

_"Samuel, take the entrance..."_

_"I'm on it...lordy, there's a lot of them." _He himself wasn't sure if they could take them on, but they've seen worse odds before.

_"Attention all students...you are to remain in your rooms until I say otherwise. Failure to obey will result in my eternal ire."_

* * *

-Outside-

It was a war zone. The Purifiers where storming the ground intent on wiping out the remaining mutants, with only now Bishop and Cannonball left to defend the gates to the school.

"RRAAAA!" Bishop was making a 'last stand' sort of pose to at least intimidate some of the enemy opposition. Cannonball tried to take them out from the air, but his assault was cut short when a massive surge of energy neutralized his energy field and cut him off temporarily from his powers

"Uhhh...what...my blast field...what was..." What rotten luck in the heat of battle.

"Ah, yes...the other Guthrie." He landed close to Stryker and Jack who were leading the charge.

"You..." He realized who was behind it all. The bus. Jay. Everything.

"While we specifically came for the children, but you were next on God's list." Jack then aimed his gun directly at Sam in. An attempt to end his life, but was only lucky enough to wound him, not kill him as his powers came back up just in time to save him. Emma saw through his eyes as to what just happened.

"Sam! Dear God...Stryker." She saw who orchestrated the events of late but...it made no sense. They came too well prepared. Where did they find instruments able to counter their powers so precisely? How did they know exactly what their abilities were? Where did they get that much dirt and info on them?

* * *

-Outside the Church of the Reverend William Stryker-

Only four people had been left into the church located in Westchester. Two of them had been assigned the duty of 'cleansing'. So, they were expecting to carry inside the dead body of the Muslim girl and dispose of it. But they really wanted to partake in the 'cleansing' that the Reverend was currently leading.

"We have to hurry, the cleansing has already begun."

"What about the boy?"

"We'll dispose of him when we return from the Insti..." Then he was cut off as he heard a slicing sound right next to him. "What?"

He was shocked to see that his brother in faith had been speared by a metallic claw right through his chin and into his brain.

"Paul! No...no! Th-that's not possible...we saw you die...we...oh no..." Yeah he was pretty much screwed. What he though was the Muslim girl who could turn to dust, well...turns ou, it was the female clone of Wolverine, who then preceded to kill him and made her way back to the Institute after hearing what they just said. She would have to come back for Jay Guthrie at a later time, if he was still alive that is...

* * *

-Down in the Basement-

"Something isn't right." The technician was seeing something he really didn't like.

"I know. Paul and Joseph should have returned by now." Not what he was trying to get across to the one standing guard for him in case the dying mutant brat tried something.

"No, I'm talking about the device. After the power spike, everything changed...the levels are off the charts."

"Sorry…so sorry..." Jay was begging to whoever was listening in to him that he regretted what he had done, and was trying to think of something that he could do to atone for what he had done.

"What's taking so long? They're supposed to pick this one up, too." He was getting impatient, how difficult was it to dispose of just one mutant body? None. It was a rhetorical question really.

"Will you shut up about the mutant?! Something's wrong here. I...oh, no." He saw the machine's eyes begin to light up and line up a shot that would kill him instantly. "It's online!"

The beam went straight through and disintegrated him molecule by molecule.

_**"Nimrod unit online. Contact established. Weapons systems at 7.24 percent. Human combatant identification: Designation 'Purifiers'. Analysis: Threat to primary objective. Terminate."**_

"AAAHHHH!" The purifier screamed as his head was crushed by the full force of the machine's remaining and waning strength.

"Please...Julia...forgive me...I didn't want to hurt anyone..." He pleaded the truth to her if she was watching over him. He watched as Nimrod reactivated itself, repairing enough damage to kill the two Purifiers left to guard the machine and then crawl to him with its one usable arm to finish what Stryker began. But not before he managed to leave a message with his very own blood. Maybe that would convince the others to forgive him for all the pain and grief he caused them.

_**"Unit energy at 16.5 percent. Mutant target confirmed: Joshua Guthrie, designation: Icarus. Recommendation: Terminate. Error. Systems at critical energy levels. Discharge of primary weapons jeopardizes primary objective. Solution. Massive internal bleeding in target in progress. Solution target death imminent. Proceed with primary objective."**_

And with that the machine ended the young boy's life. It began to continue building consensus on its next course of action and decided to proceed with what was lost likely the most logical action to take.

* * *

-The Institute-

Quill had noticed that Anole and Pixie were running in front of his room out of their own.

"Hey!"

"Come on!" Anole ignored his first call for attention, so Quill decided to be a little more talkative.

"Guys, what's going on?!" He simply asked. The strong lights and noises were starting to get him curious as well, to tell the truth. But also more afraid at the same time.

"We don't know but we're going to find out. Come on, Max!"

"But…but Miss Frost said to stay in our rooms…" They ignored him and kept on walking. "Besides, I thought I heard…" They turned the angle just as another shadow appeared over him, from behind him a fat Purifier brought an finger to his mouth and mocked him with a silent 'Shhhh…'. "Wait…" He turned around…just about to be shot...but he saw instantly that a pair of hand grabbed hold of the Purifier's head and broke his neck completely. He had shut his eyes in fear of what would happen next but, he opened them back up to see that it was the new guy who revived Laurie.

"Get back inside and hide as best you can."

Quill knew better than to argue so he just slipped back inside his room and locked the door and hid under his bed.

* * *

-The Students-

When the assault began the kids down in the med bay who were watching over Naruto as he was still in his coma, came up to see what was going on, only for the Cuckoo's to begin holding their heads in pain of the vast thought being thrown around the campus.

"David!"

"Mindee? What's…?" He got cut off immediately.

"Everyone is screaming."

"Everyone is scared." They stopped in front of him. "We don't understand…we can't hear anything negative. Our minds don't detect anything."

"Try looking through other people's eyes. Someone you know." The Cuckoos nodded and started complying with David's suggestion, focusing all together.

"I'm entering Bishop's min…AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Even if it had been Mindee who was talking, the three screamed as one, scaring the crap out of David.

"What do you see?" The three stoic girls. Girls literally unable to feel hardly any emotion, were screaming, and if anything, that wasn't a sign of anything good happening.

"Bishop is hurt."

"Cannonball is dying…"

"It's the man on TV. The Reverend. He's inside the school."

"Stryker is here."

'Oh, no…'

* * *

-Emma Frost-

"Arrogant mind-witch!" At the moment, Emma wasn't doing any better than her students. It looked like some of the Purifiers had been prepared specifically to kill one of the mutants inside the school each, but overall, all of them had been shielded against telepathy, as such was proved by the woman ignoring her command of dropping to the ground senseless blocking her movements.

"Your telepathy is useless against us. Our father has prepared us for all of your demon abilities!" Emma turned to her diamond form…and the woman just stabbed her in the shoulder with her knife. "This is a vibranium blade." It seemed that that woman had been sent specifically to kill her. She gritted her teeth. It hurt like hell. And she was going to make her pay for that.

"You…will pay for that…you miserable cow." The woman just ignored her and turned on her head radio, smiling deviously.

"Father, I have the teacher."

"_Well done Mary, bring me her head."_ The communication was ended abruptly when she was hit by a telekinetic blast from the back by Julian.

"Get away from her!" The blast sent the woman flying away towards her colleagues. In a moment, he and Nori were in the middle of the room. She dashed right by channeling her electricity to hit some of the racist bastards as she moved.

"Kill them!" Shouted another Purifier. But it seemed that they couldn't block Surge's power…however at the same time, unfortunately, Nori had just missed the man who had been prepared to kill her.

"Ahhhhh!" A bullet hit her in the back. Mary had recovered just in time to recover the gun of one of her fallen comrades and aim it at Julian.

"Die!" Julian just smirked and raised a telekinetic force-field…failing to notice that in that case, it had been that had been prepared. The bullet blew through his force field like it was butter.

"What the hell?! How…" He turned around, letting the bullet hit him in the back of his right shoulder. "Argh!"

* * *

-Forge's Lab-

He was in the final stages of completing his work over the past two weeks. He finally started to program it with its protocols.

_Protocol 1: Protect Mutants_

_Protocol 2: Protect Humans_

_Protocol 3: Destroy Sentinels_

_Protocol 4: Preserve Self_

_Designation __

_"Protocol installation in progress."_

"Good, just a few more tweaks..."

He was about to put the finishing touches on the model until an alarm sounded off and the computer answered his curiosity.

"What is it?"

_"Client: Ashida, Noriko. Device: Energy Regulation Gauntlets. Status: Destruction Imminent."_

He needed to know what was going on. What was so terrible that Surge would try to contact him, but not get through to him? "Begin remote shutdown. Get me the Xavier Institute."

_"Contacting..."_

Now he was getting really worried.

_"All communications with the Institute are down."_ Not good. 'Dammit, Scott what's going over there?'

* * *

-Naruto-

He could see some explosions coming from the other side of the school. Where they kept the '198', they called them, but he was sure there were people inside the school too. 'Well, time to get a move on.' He thought as he made several Shadow Clones and signaled them to fan out across the estate to take down any enemies they came across. He made a single Wood Clone for another job outside.

"Alright, while the other boys are taking care of things inside here, go out there and take out the nut jobs with..." He furrowed his brows in concentration trying to think of something really flashy and badass.

"With what boss?"

His eyes shot open and had the perfect idea.

"A Wood Dragon!"

"Nice thinkin' boss." The Wood Clone gave a salute and then broke through the window leaving the original with a sweat drop on his face.

'Why couldn't he have just opened it, then jumped outside to help?'

**"Becauuuuuse there's really no time to be so clean about helping them out you idiot!"**

'Shit! Sorry!'

He decided to make a small stop to his room to get some of his tools. The Executioner's Blade would be really handy in carving people up. Heads would roll tonight…literally.

The Wood Clone ran out towards the scene of the fight and formed the proper hand signs to bring it out.

"Wood Style: Wood Dragon Jutsu!"

Then the massive serpentine dragon rose from the ground and the clone jumped onto its head, heading out to deal with the enemy at the gates.

* * *

-Sooraya-

"Uhhh…" Sooraya's mind took in her undressed state, and immediately began to search for the one responsible. "Laura? What did you do?" She slowly got up on her feet and out of her bathroom. "Why did you hit me?" She slowly opened the door…and one word escaped her lips. "Allah…"

"Raaa!"

"Waaaaa!" Santo and Cessily were fighting against robed men. Armed robed men wielding guns. The two noticed the girl had opened the door and turned their attention to her.

"Sooraya! Get back!" The metallic girls' first thought was for her safety.

"Holy crap, Dust! I'm not supposed to see you without your special outfit!" Santo's too. But somehow, even in a life or death situation, he was able to make it into a joke…har har. But the Purifier who was about to shoot Santo from behind got surprised by the girl's sudden appearance. Why? Because she was supposed to be dead.

"The Muslim? But that's not possible…" They had lured her there using the false angel. "You're dead…" This was impossible!

"Turaab." Because in the visions she single-handedly killed them all.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" She began to rip the flesh from their bones using her sand.

"Reverend, come in! Reverend!"

* * *

-Stryker-

_"Reverend, we're encountering heavy resistance from the 198."_

Stryker had the task of leading the purge, and that was why he was just slowly patrolling the corridors of the school alongside Matthew, the Hitman, and his right-hand man.

"They are not the primary target. Keep them away from the mansion as long as possible." He replied to the last Purifier that had contact with him.

"Someone get me a visual on Mary, she's gone radio silent." Matthew decided to comment on that with a very blunt statement.

"She's either in combat or dead."

"Have faith, Matthew. Our victory is assured by God. She has Frost…we'll find the healer and eliminate the rest of the seven while my purifiers deal with the children in their rooms." He was absolutely confident that they would succeed, but then he heard a loud cry over the radio.

_"Father! An unknown enemy has engaged us! He's…cutting us to pieces with a large cleaver! He…GYEARGH…!" _then he heard another voice over the radio,_ "You're gonna pay you sons of bitches!" _Before he could understand what was happening, he received another communication._ "Reverend! We're under attack outside by a large dragon! It's flattening our forces and devouring them! We need to retreat!"_ That wasn't in the vision, what on Earth was going then, he was growing fearful that tonight was going to force them to make a second strike on them, and it would not be easy, the last thing he needed was another disturbance in his path. Unlucky him, he received just that over the comms channel.

_"Reverend! We've had a visual on the mutant Dust. I repeat, Dust is alive."_ And that made his 'faith' shake even further.

"No…no, that isn't possible. She's dead. The vision confirmed it. God himself foretold…"

_"She sees me…oh, god she's…AAAAARRHGHH!"_

Something had gone wrong. But nonetheless, they would win, they had to win. "Matthew, we proceed with God's plan. The lords stands with us. No matter what lies in our path" David thanked God for the training that made him and the Cuckoos able to get unnoticed by the two men. Josh and Laurie weren't far behind them.

* * *

-Most of the New X-Men-

"Uhhh…" Great…the last thing she needed was someone yelling in her head, after the smoke cleared from their recent fight. Her new gloves were damaged badly and she couldn't control her electricity anymore, so she was forced to ditch them or risk getting them melted into her skin from the heat of the flames in the hallway.

"Surge! Surge, pull it together!" Julian tried to get her to get back to her senses, as difficult as that could be, she was stunned or something. Odds are she had some sort of concussion.

"Shut…up…Julian…I…" A gun came in her vision. "Oh, crap." The woman was pretty resilient. Mary, right? And sadistic too, judging from her creepy ass smile.

"Now you die, demon." That's when Laura had finally arrived to slice 'n' dice the Purifiers

"Aaaaargh!"

"Noooo."

"Oh." Noriko, Julian and Emma watched with awe and relief as the Wolverine clone saved their lives by ending the Purifiers. Her claws cut through flesh and metal like they were wet paper. Just three Purifiers were standing in the room after five seconds. Laura clawed the woman through her heart and lungs, while the bald one opened fire on her from behind. It hit her, but it didn't stop her. She somersaulted and kicked the blonde purifier in the face with enough force to snap his neck and slashing the bald one across the chest and stomach, effectively gutting him, and landed gracefully on her feet like a dancer.

"WHOA."

"OHMYGOD!" Dust, Mercury and Rockslide arrived just in time to see a very cool and at the same time frightening image. Laura, her hands soaked in blood and her body splattered with it, retracting her claws.

"It was a trap, Sooraya."

"You…you took my place?" Santo suddenly felt like a grade 'A' asshole for saying that he hated 'the clone'. How could you hate a person who was willing to go that far to protect a friend?

"I believe Allah didn't want you to die." Replied Laura again.

"Uh!" Julian had taken out the vibranium knife embedded in Emma's shoulder. "Thank you, Mr. Keller. Now let's keep moving, shall we?" While Santo helped her back to her feet, Laura hadn't finished moving yet. She kneeled down on the bald purifier. The only one still alive.

"Laura?" She and Cessily had noticed that one of her claws was out again.

"Laura, what are you…" Laura held the man's head up, and then ran the claw right through it, from the back, earning a synchronized 'WAAAAAAAAAH!' from Cess and Nori. And a… "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!" From Santo. Believing it to be just cheap ass violence you'd see on TV. "Man she totally finished him."

"Wait, I…I can read his mind, now." She began to search for the information she needed, and she found the answers. "It's been Stryker this whole time."

"Though I walk…through…" Laura lifted the man's head to show that she had run the claw through a strange device that they had attached behind their heads.

"They all have these." It was some sort of implant that blocked Emma's telepathy. She sniffed it. "So did Icarus. It smells like death."

"Stryker was responsible for Jay's wings…" She kept on searching through the man's mind, knowing that his time was running short along with her time to gather the info. "For the bus attack…for Laurie...there's something else…overshadowing everything…no…no! He's dead. Damn it! There was something else…some kind of 'device'."

As they were recovering, they saw two Purifiers; one armed with a flamethrower, and the other pointing their weapon directly at them, and they were too far away for any of the mutants to take action.

"Burn in hell demons…" The tip lit up and just as they were about to pull the trigger, a massive black blade impaled him from behind and picked him up bringing him closer to the other Purifier, and the flamethrower went off, setting the Purifier on his right in flames.

"GYYYAAHH! HELP ME! HELP ME!"

"Oh, I'll help you alright." Then without warning a hand picked up the Purifier and then closed its' fist around him, splattering the wall with blood, guts, and flames. He tossed the other body out the window, which then revealed a massive Dragon that appeared to be made of wood biting down on several Purifiers. Their jaws hung low as they witnessed the extremist's being slaughtered for whole sale.

* * *

-Outside-

The Wood Clone Naruto sat on top of the Dragon's head as he directed it to attack the Purifiers whilst avoiding the Sentinels and keeping them away from the mansion.

"Man, as radical as these guys are, they are smart enough to realize that they ain't got a chance against a giant Dragon. They really should've known better than to try and take on the enemy on their home turf."

The dragon continued to flatten the enemy with its massive wooden body mass and devour them one by one. It took some damage from their grenades, but its trunk was sturdier than steel, and that was so badass!

'Though I will admit, it is really cool to have something like this on hand.'

"**You didn't think that the Jutsu was cool before."**

'Th-that was a completely different situation and you know it too furball!'

"**Hehehehe."**

* * *

-Inside-

"Well, now that I know that you guys are alright, my clones are still tiding up the rest of the place and my Wood Dragon tending to the lawn, we can finally take out the bastard responsible for all this crap." Naruto had the giant cleaver on his back and dispersed his Susanoo, he was then attacked in a vicious hug by Nori and almost suffocated him. She pulled back and had her hand gripping firmly on

"What the hell! You don't go scaring us like that dammit! What if you died?! Seriously?" She was really happy to have her friend back around, and not a moment too soon.

Naruto looked a little sheepish after that. "Uhmmm….my bad..?"

"Dude…you just ripped one in half and then you crushed the other into sticky pieces…" Santo was pointing his shaky finger at the now white haired ninja.

"Yeah, I know, that's what I meant to do. It was either them, or ya'll, so that's actually a really easy choice for me. And in case you guys are wondering, yes I have killed before in previous fights, but not in cold bloodlike these bastards." He snarled the last few parts out with venom and nudged one of the downed Purifiers in the head. The kid's spines had chills that went up and down when he said that, but he turned his attention back to Emma.

"So what's going on? Who are these guys?"

"It's the same people that attacked Laurie and the bus. They…" Emma was interrupted by a new set of thoughts coming to her head. David, Josh and Laurie along with her girls.

_"Miss Frost? I'm with Mindee and the girls. We could use a hand. Josh and Laurie are also here."_

_"We've got Stryker. Oh, no..."_

_"Onyxx!"_

"No."

Nearby, Josh had heard the whole thing and had a drlark scowl on his face. "DJ..." He was determined to make good on what he told Laurie that he would kill them.

* * *

-The Students-

"Watch it! Argh!" It was the first time an explosive bullet hit him. And even if it wasn't a major area, it sure hurt. But he didn't have time for that. They had to get away. Telepathy was useless. They had verified. And he was just useless. They had to run…leaving an injured Onyxx, the other 'rock dude', behind.

But what really caught Stryker and Risman's attention was Laurie. She was walking around even after Risman himself confirmed the kill. Their eyes were wide in disbelief. They had no explanation other than that it was done by the hand of Satan himself.

"Find them and kill them for sure this time Matthew. Especially the girl. Collins cannot live!" He gritted his teeth in anger and frustration at the fact that a major threat was still around.

"Yes, father. I will bring her head this time as proof of her death." Matthew obeyed and started his pursuit of the kids, hastily…as he would not allow his prey to escape him. Not again.

"God is with you, Matthew. Always remember that, do not let them deceive you." Stryker watched Matthew go after the four students while ignoring the moans of pain of the 'demon' he had just injured using the power of his glove. He just smiled. "Now, to fulfill my destiny."

"You will do nothing, William." He turned to the source of the voice. Emma Frost. Along with the New X-Men. "Your destiny ends now." But now, there were three things tonight that shook his faith. An unknown student with white hair, strange eyes and a massive blade hoisted in one of his hands and the Muslim girl, Dust.

"The Muslim…I don't understand…God showed me your death…I made it happen, you abomination…" He was pissed off more so than ever. "I killed you!"

"Be silent!" Sooraya was as enraged as him if not more so. "No God would condone such horror! Such hatred! You are the abomination!"

"And you…who are you? You weren't in the vision." He turned his sight to Naruto.

"I'm the guy who has killed about 30 of your men ever since I woke up, along with bringing out that Wood Dragon outside thrashing them around." He paused. "Actually scratch that 62. My clones just dispelled. I'm also the one who brought Laurie back from the dead you murderous bastard." Naruto decided to flare his Susanoo in the hopes of seeing absolute fear in the man's eyes. Success for a bit actually until he steels himself...lightly if anything.

Stryker now saw the ethereal being enveloping Naruto and showed the three glowing eyes, and the horns protruding from the head, he thought aloud. "Now...now I see! You are Satan himself! Come to protect what's left your diseased, and filthy children. God is testing me." He raised his gloved arm into the air, energy starting to crackle. "I will not fail you, Lord. I will slay your once faithful servant and secure my place in Heaven!"

"Watch out! He's gonna…"

"I am your serv…" Both Nori and Stryker stopped halfway because of the same person but for different reasons. Noriko because she saw another Naruto behind him with some sort of rod that came from his palm, coming down on the glowing arm, nothing to worry about there. While Stryker on the other hand...well...you get the point...

"GYYYEEAAARGHH!"

Naruto sliced the arm off completely and punched him in the face to stop his screaming temporarily. He rose up with only his one arm left and grabbed a hold of his stump of an arm, groaning in pain. He looked back and forth between the two Naruto's and was in absolute fear that he failed. While the students could only watch and try to hold back their dinner from the sickening scene.

He spun around to make a run for it to nurse his wound back at his church, but was cut short as he saw the healer grab a hold of his face and his vision became blurry until dark was took a hold of him.

"YOU KILLED THEM ALL!" His hands were turning black while Stryker's body began to get covered with…black bubbles? "DIE, YOU BASTARD!" Stryker ran out of air, but he found that his body couldn't do anything but scream.

"DIIIIEEEE!" In a few seconds, Stryker was dead, under the even more petrified gazes of everyone but Emma and Naruto in the room, but then, when the Reverend's body fell to the ground, killed by what would be later known as Josh's 'Death Touch'.

"AAAAAHHHH!" It was Josh's turn to scream, his whole body had turned from gold to black.

* * *

-Later-

Some hours later, the situation had calmed down. The other senior X-Men had returned, along with a heavy contingent from the O*N*E. Other agents, paramedics, etc.

"I lost nine ground soldiers, and we still don't know what caused the Sentinels to freeze up like that." Colonel Miguel Reyes inspected the battle zone that the school had become, he just couldn't help but let out some kinda rant. "Cannonball and the boy called Onyxx are critically wounded. Bishop and Beast suffered minor injuries, as did Emma Frost, but thank God there weren't any actual casualties. Several, of the attackers were seen escaping the Institute after the Sentinels came online, but an earlier report stated that the Ronin kid was riding some kind of wooden dragon around the grounds killing and scaring off many of the Purifiers, so we really don't know how many could be dead, aside from what bodies and body pieces we could pick up." The kid was one hell of a fighter, he gave him that much. "Although, one of them was identified as Matthew Risman, a contract killer. He escaped with whatever was left of the assault force, along with half of his face torn off." But he had a listener. Valerie Cooper. "And you said just ten kids stopped these guys?"

"Frost's squad. But I heard the one that killed Stryker isn't doing so well." She replied.

"Too bad." And he meant it. He turned his attention to what they had removed from the Reverend's severed arm. The huge pink gauntlet. "Any idea what that is?"

"No…" Replied Valerie, eyeing the strange device as well. "But I'm going to find out."

Elsewhere, two other heads were talking. Scott was Emma. "Are you okay?"

"Honestly, for the first time in a while, I think I can say somewhat yes. But we were still caught off guard, and people got hurt. It could have been worse, a lot worse. So for now I'm alright." Emma was honest with only a few people, and Scott was one of them. But now her mind was on one thing. The meeting over Naruto. "How did it go?"

"We talked it over, and with Stephen's standing as an Avenger and our own good credit, it's been decided that it's best if he stays here at the Institute. After Stark and SHIELD's debacle with the Thor clone, and the covert Thunderbolts program that was kept from official eyes and ears, O*N*E doesn't want the possibility of his abilities getting out to anyone. Though Cooper and Reyes will want to hear his story from himself, and I think that several others want to hear it too." She knew what he meant, but it was damn good thing that he wouldn't be handed over to the government. "We knew we couldn't keep him a secret forever."

* * *

-The Med Bay-

His skin was now completely black, and he kept his eyes wide open.

"He's not talking. Not responding to anyone." Explained David, having been the one who had talked with the medics. "He's been like that for six hours. And, of course, his skin."

"I don't think Foley could do that…" Julian tried to find the words, but since they still didn't know what Josh had done to the Reverend, he opted to say something else. "What he did."

"It was always possible…but I don't think Josh was ever supposed to use his powers like that." He went from a healer to a killer had the feeling that his hypothesis was right.

"At least he killed that psychotic fucker." Santo found at least one good thing out of the nightmare. David cursed under his breath and slapped the reinforced glass separating them from the room below.

"Why do guys think Stryker believed he could just walk in here like that? He seemed so positive that he could…"

"Because he was insane, David." She had just fastened her old gloves back on, as her new ones were broken as hell.

"I'm not so sure, Nori…so anyone interested in getting answers on our new friend?"

"Yes." It was an answer in unison from the rest of the kids.

* * *

-Naruto-

He went back to his old room to put the Blade back in its seal, and to try and wanted to put his clones to work outside but, several people were already hard at work doing their jobs, and figured he'd just get in the way. So he opted to try and get some answers from Kaguya, but alas, he was denied the opportunity as he heard Scott knock on the door frame to get his attention.

"Naruto, there's a few people that want to ask you a few questions, among other things."

He raised an eyebrow at that, but realized that after reviving the dead would definitely warrant some suspicion, and it seems like he was getting a chance to explain himself. He wouldn't tell the question seekers everything, but rather just try to vaguely answer them with things that would satisfy them, no way in hell was he going to tell them about the Tailed Beasts and Kaguya, although Cyclops, Emma and Hank already knew about them, so he figured he could tell the other X-Men about himself more so in detail.

"Uhhh...alright, just let me put on something that doesn't have patches of blood on me." He held out his shirt as it had several large and dark bloodied up spots, even the smell was getting to him.

"No problem, just head to my office once you're ready. Don't take too long though."

Naruto nodded as Cyclops left to oversee the rest of the recovery of the mansion.

He tidied up himself after dealing up the blood soaked clothes into a seal for washing later. He made his way towards Summer's office where more than likely the people were waiting, he ran into a few of the students, notably Julian and Cessily, they caught sight of the white haired shinobi and grabbed his attention.

"Alright blo...err...whitie..." Yeah not the best nickname for him, but he needed his attention. "You got some explainin' to do."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But I've got go talk with the teachers and some other people 'bout what I did. You could eavesdrop if ya'll wanted to, you know."

The two students looked at each other thinking that the teachers wouldn't let them know about their new teammate, however it seemed Ms Frost had mentally overheard the conversation and decided to step in.

_"Gather your teammates, and head Mr. Summer's office if you want to hear his story."_

They silently said yes and headed back to the med bay to get their friends as continued Naruto to walk to the office and stepped in with some of the students running behind him to catch up so that they didn't miss a detail. The students the senior X-Men and the O*N*E heads were all either sitting or standing around the office.

"Alright where to begin...?"

"How about the beginning?" Logan asked rhetorically.

"Hey, there are a lot of place that I could begin, since this is a very long and drawn out story. And I'm not joking, seriously...the events of my life where made centuries before I was even born."

Emma decided to step in and help out with things. "Perhaps it would be simpler to do both show and tell, it might make things better to see the events."

Naruto thought for a moment on whether or not they'd even believe what they'd see, but he decided to just say 'fuck it' and let them believe it or not.

"Alrighty then. Okay let's take a trip down memory lane."

Emma pulled them into his sub-consciousness and masked the Tailed Beasts and the castle from everyone's sight for the time being. And the scenery changed to that of a massive tree that was twice the size of the Empire State Building. Everyone was in awe of a natural structure that was this big…

* * *

-Sometime Before-

Only after the whole incident had been cut off he had managed to contact them. Scott had just finished explaining to him what had occurred through the night, and why they had the meeting with O*N*E at their HQ.

"Just let me know if there's anything you need. I'll be there in another week…and Scott…" The reason he had been up at that late in the night. "I'm bringing something with me. I think you'll like it."

_"I'll look forward to it. I could use some good news. Oh, and Forge…Storm was asking if you were coming to the wedding?"_

"Can't make it. I sent a card." A quick reply to immediately cut off the argument. Cyclops understood. He and Storm had a thing for a while, but it wasn't meant to be at the time.

_"Understood. Cyclops out."_ Forge didn't even have a minute to turn off the communication when another, but heavy electronic voice sounded off behind him.

_**"Target Located: Primary Objective Complete."**_

"What…" And then he saw it, hovering in the air just outside the window. It was damaged, it was missing an arm and various other parts of its structure, but it wasn't impossible to recognize it.

_**"Declaration: The Maker Has Been Found."**_ Nimrod.

* * *

**And that's the end of Crusade, hope I got it right though, as I find myself thinking that there was more I could've done to make this better. So now Naruto has to explain himself a bit to the X-Men and O*N*E...hopefully without the threat of being thrown in a cell to be pricked and prodded like a lab rat. **

**No way is he gonna let a repeat of what happened in his world happen here. Originally I was gonna have Naruto explain himself in this chapter, however I decided to go ahead and setup Nimrod and save it for the next chapter. The next chapter will continue to the Nimrod arc as it has finally met its match. So continue to vote on the pairing poll on my profile, read, review and favorite. No flames as they will be deleted. Thank you guys :)**


	8. Chapter 7: Nimrod Part 1

_**And now we begin the Nimrod **__**arc with this chapter being double sized! **__**Why you ask? Well,**__** this will start with the first part from the comic, and then we will move over to the explanation, or rather the one he'll give to O*N*E really since he doesn't trust the government, but he will tell the X-Men the **__**truth, and then back the comics primary story**__**. Now on with the story**__**. Also, I own nothing. If I did, then this would be canon.**_

* * *

Chapter 7: Nimrod Part 1

* * *

-The Church of the Purifiers-

"We were called in…there were reports of gunfire and an explosion. But when we got here…" The cop pointed the two's attention to the rest of the bloody room. "Well, you saw those bodies out there, all cut up. I just never…never seen anything like it. And when we went inside, it got even worse. All the bodies…weird computers…I mean, that guy over there…" He pointed to one of the bodies on the floor, now all covered with blankets. "What can do that to someone? It's just too much." He turned to his 'guests' again, adjusting the hat over his head. "I know you guys deal with this kinda thing, and since you're the official superheroes now…I-I just thought…"

"You did the right thing, officer." The poor bastard. Between the crime scene and their presence, he was starting to stutter, trying to excuse himself for asking for help. "We'll take it from here." Tony Stark aka Iron Man and Carol Danvers aka Ms. Marvel were the leaders of the Mighty Avengers, and had received a call from the local police on a high tech murder scene. Or what it appeared to be like...

Tony's brain and suit immediately started to analyze the structure, mostly the 'weird computers'.

"Most of the computers here are fairly basic…and apparently designed to download and display data, not used for processing." He then kneeled down next to the body that disturbed the cop. Most, if not all of it was covered in ash. "Hmmm…" He used his left hand to touch the ash to enable the sensors in his suit to start giving out an analysis of its chemical composition.

"What could have done this, Tony?" Carol Danvers had seen a lot of things in her life, but she knew that people didn't turn to dust by gunshots. And to get answers it was always better to ask the smart people like Tony.

"Some kind of disintegration ray. Although I haven't seen anything quite like this. Even Ultron isn't so…thorough." There were various traces of multiple elements, oxygen, carbon, phosphorus and other things.

"I hate mysteries. Give me something to punch any day." Yup, she hated these type of things, she much rather kick ass, than play detective.

"Be careful what you fish for, Carol. I'm picking up a distinct energy trail." His other sensors had started searching for other clues, soon he found in front of his eyes something that seemed to be a glowing pink puddle. He started to analyze the energy, 'Error. Energy type unknown' as it read. He started working with what he had on him, which was almost next to nothing. The direction of the trail that had come from the cross was really the only viable thing at the moment to help them figure things out. "Whatever it was, it moved down from the cross, killed those two men, and came to this body here." Yet, another strange thing to add to the list. He turned to the cop in charge. "Your report says this one died from a bullet wound?" He interfaced his suit with every known database planet side. "Commence full spectrum analysis: Record." From the outside, his armor's eyes glowed a vibrant red. And even if it was a 'full spectrum analysis', it just took a few seconds more than the normal ones. But the result was the same. "It's not coming up in any of the records… S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers, Fantastic Four…odd." For the moment, they would need to focus on the movements of the subject that left the trail. "The energy trail left the church and took flight…headed southwest, then just stopped cold about a mile out."

"So this thing has a disintegration ray, but shot someone with a gun?" Carol just had to use sarcasm. It just looked too weird to not, however she gasped when the cop uncovered the body. "Oh my god…it's just a kid." Tony turned to the body as well. You could notice a lot of things. His posture, his last facial expression and what looked like his last desperate act. He tried to write a message on the floor, in his own blood. Tried, was the word, as it seemed he hadn't finished it. They were easily able to make out some of it, NIMR...and what looked like either a C, a G, or an O, either or he died trying to get a message out.

"A kid trying to tell us something." Tony found admirable that a 'kid' found the willpower to write something in his own blood on the floor just moments before dying. Most of the adults he knew didn't have that kind of willpower. He scanned his face. "Facial recognition in progress…" Match found. "The Office of National Emergency has a file on him. Joshua Guthrie…he's a mutant."

"Oh, no…does…is there any information on his family?"

"Mother, Lucinda Guthrie." Of course there was. "Father, deceased. Siblings…Elizabeth, Joelle, Melody, Paige, Samuel…" This was one hell of a list is head to say.

"Sam Guthrie." Carol cut off Tony when she recognized the combination of the last name and the surname. She turned to the body once more. "This is one of Xavier's students. This is Cannonball's brother." A tragedy, but Tony had to remain the professional regardless.

"The X-Men might have information about what did this. Maybe whatever the boy wrote means something to them." They needed something to at least honor that boy's last act. His last ounce of strength had been used to leave behind that message. No way in hell could it be ignored. "I'll notify Valerie Cooper at the O*N*E. They can…"

"No. The X-Men shouldn't get this kind of news from the military." Carol cut off Tony again. She knew he was already ringing up the agency's number. "I'll tell them."

His last visit wasn't very fruitful, he wanted to know more about the boy, so he hoped Carol would have more success than he did. "Then, please do me a favor. Speak to Emma about…"

* * *

-The Institute-

They had seen it all, or rather what Naruto wanted them to see. His world was in a constant state of war centuries before he was even born, until a woman took the power of a tree that was considered to be a primordial god, and ended the wars. But the tree grew angry, and became the Ten-Tailed Beast to take back the power that was stolen from it. It was colossal...a nightmare that rivaled and perhaps surpassing the Phoenix force that Jean Grey once had. But maybe more of the latter, while the Phoenix could destroy worlds, the Ten-Tails itself could not only do that, but enthrall one, consume its inhabitants, and it had done just that for a while, until a man Naruto referred to as the Sage of Six Paths had stopped the beast and became it's host, controlling and using its power through his own will astonished them on many levels. He eventually gave mankind small parts of his power to try and achieve peace, but his sons vied for who would become the successor and plunged the world into war. The Sage was near death and had feared that the beast would continue its rampage once more and had split its power into nine separate animals, weaker of course but that didn't mean they could be just as destructive. But what was unbelievable was that the shell, the body itself called the Gedo Statue, was sealed into the core of his world's moon, even with the Sage near death. Naruto insisted that it was true, but continued on nonetheless.

Time passed by as the people became divided into clans and they vied for control and how things should function, but it was two people that Naruto had gone into detail with overall: Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. Their clans were rivals from the beginning as they were descendants of the sons of the Sage. Indra the eldest formed the Uchiha, and Ashura the youngest formed the Senju. But Hashirama and Madara were different, they simply wanted to create a place for their siblings, for the future to live in peace, but they each had differing views on how to approach it. Madara with power and Hashirama with love, they dueled each other on the battlefield until finally Madara had been defeated, and Hashirama extended a hand to help due to their past friendship. Some say he was naive, others say it was a saint, either way he was able to reclaim their friendship for a while and together they formed the Hidden Leaf Village, Naruto's home. But Madara feared that the Uchiha would be wiped out when Hashirama's brother, Tobirama would take over as the Hokage, the title of the village leader as he believed that the Uchiha would start a coup to take over. And so Madara left the village for a few years, only to return to attack it, and in tow he had Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox as a weapon. They saw the fight level the mountains and create a place that would be called the Valley of the End. It was as if they had witnessed gods fighting one another. Hashirama had won, but Madara had cheated his death and hid away for many years, but during their final clash, Madara had bit off a piece of Hashirama to acquire his cells, the entire point of the fight. He integrated his cells into his body and awakened the Rinnegan, the eyes so similar to Naruto's without the Tomoe, and was able to summon the Gedo Statue from the moon, releasing the White Zetsu from it and subconsciously awakening it's will: Black Zetsu, and had done it all before he took his very last breath for almost a century.

Madara's plan was to recreate the Ten-Tails, and become its host as the Sage once did, and cast the Genjutsu on the moon to control the world, and give them 'peace'. But there were precautions and steps that needed to be taken in order for 'Project Tsuki no Me'; The Eye of the Moon; to succeed. He had already completed the first step. Awaken the Rinnegan and summon the Gedo Statue. Step two: Ensure that his eyes would be safe until he could be revived from the dead. He had found a suitable person for the job, an innocent young boy named Nagato, a relative of Naruto who was used and manipulated to follow a dark path to find peace, as he was trained by Naruto's godfather, Jiraiya. But Nagato would not be the only child to be manipulated by Madara, soon a young Uchiha orphan named Obito would be used and turned to believing in Madara's ideals and plans, and he made sure of it. He had several White Zetsu's pose as rival village ninja's in order to make sure that they killed his teammate Rin, the girl that Obito loved with all his heart, at the hands of his best friend Kakashi, Naruto's first sensei and student of his father, the Fourth Hokage.

Obito would go on throughout the years laying out the groundwork and manipulating Nagato to join him in the new Akatsuki. Years passed and on the night of Naruto's birth, Obito attacked his parents as the Nine-Tailed Fox that they saw previously was sealed inside a host for many years and they soon passed away with his mother becoming the new host. Though if anything when they saw her...they saw an uncanny resemblance between his mother and Jean Grey, the slight differences were their eyes, and their hair color. Jean had emerald eyes, whereas Kushina had purple eyes, and her hair was a dark like blood, and Jean's was bright like fire. Obito had snuck in and killed the guards to get to Kushina and enslave the Nine-Tails to attack the village. His father Minato had managed to defeat Obito, unaware to who he was, and was able to subdue the Nine-Tails for a bit after its rampage in the village. Soon the Nine-Tails was sealed away in Naruto as his parents protected him when it tried to kill him, giving their lives for his. An act of love that was felt by the others.

Years passed by as Naruto continued to endure alone, as the villagers hated and vilified him, it was only by the kindness of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, that he was able to stay in a place of his own and attend the ninja academy, something that peaked their interest. He didn't really have any friends due to the parents spreading word that the 'demon brat' was also in their class so they never said a word to him. He finally managed to graduate after saving his class teacher when he himself, put no blame on Naruto of the attack 12 years ago, and had felt for the first time accepted. But despite all of the abuse he took from everyone else around him, he just simply stopped crying, and started laughing. He went from moping around, to playing daily pranks on people to get their attention all those years beforehand, and continued to do so.

As Naruto continued to grow up, Obito still planned out Project Tsuki no Me with the aid of Nagato, Konan his friend, and Zetsu, a combination of the original White and Black half's that looked like a cross between a human and a plant. They had recruited Kakuzu, an immortal from the Hidden Waterfall that stole the hearts of other to survive and become stronger. Sasori of the Hidden Sand, a master of the puppeteer Jutsu and had turned his own body into a puppet himself, almost reminiscent of a Sentinel cyborg that came to their minds. Hidan of the Hidden Steam was a true immortal unlike Kakuzu, Hidan could still keep living even if his head was cut completely off; this is the person that Naruto spoke of back when Stryker was interviewed that day, and it disgusted them all. Deidara of the Hidden Stone, an explosives expert that could mold clay into all manners of animals and then used to make explosions, or what he called 'art', he certainly made Nitro seem like a common thug with his explosions compared to the mad bomber. Kisame Hoshigaki of the Hidden Mist, the Monster of the Mist, someone that Obito recruited personally as he wanted to 'create a world without lies' when his own sensei was a traitor to his village. Orochimaru of the Hidden Leaf, was a traitor to Naruto's own village and would go on to cause more trouble as he murdered the Third Hokage within a few years and would try to destroy the village, but would fail with each time. The the last member to be mentioned was Itachi Uchiha. A man that Naruto said that was an extremely deadly shinobi and had become a black ops commander by the time he was 13.

He was a figure that was connected to another person, his younger brother and teammate: Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke looked up to his brother and admired him, as he wanted to become exactly like Itachi. But Itachi's own power began to consume him, as he killed his best friend Shisui, to obtain the Mangekyo Sharingan, only obtainable by killing your best friend, and then there was the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, something that only Madara had achieved as it can only be obtained by taking the eyes of a sibling, who also had the Mangekyo. Itachi wanted to 'test' his power out, and so, he slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan single handedly. The skill he had was unprecedented and showed that he was a genius unlike any other. As Sasuke had finally arrived home before the massacre began, he saw that Itachi was the one to admit that he killed everyone for the sake of 'testing his power', and had tortured his brother with the images of killing everyone. He told Sasuke to hate him forever and try to become strong enough one day to kill him. Sasuke cared only for revenge that day, and disregarded everything else as it was the only thing he wanted, it was the only thing that drove him. The X-Men thought Itachi was nothing more than a power hungry, egotistical bastard, but Scott and Emma knew the truth behind the events, and kept it a secret, as the Edo Tensei Itachi asked Naruto to do so, in order to keep the clan's honor untainted more so, than have anyone discover that. So they stayed silent on the matter.

Naruto and Sasuke were eventually placed on a three man team together when they graduated, and their sensei was Kakashi. Together they had accomplished several missions throughout the first two years as a team, and even had been on an A ranked mission, something considered only to be given to ninja at Kakashi's level, or Jonin as they were called, and came out alive.

Soon Orochimaru had made his move on to destroy the Leaf during the Chunin exams, and tried to manipulate a neighboring village, the Hidden Sand into helping him and wanted to use Gaara, who also was the host to Shukaku the One-Tailed Tanuki, a boy much like Naruto, but was far more in the darkness than Naruto ever was, to destroy it. Naruto had fought him to a near draw, but ultimately won and had completely changed the way he thought and perceived his life to be. But during the middle of the exam, Orochimaru had attacked Naruto's team and had marked Sasuke with a curse seal to give him the temptation of seeking power against his brother, but his true goal was to possess his body and obtain the Sharingan eyes he held.

As they were recovering Jiraiya, Naruto's godfather had decided to make him his student and wanted to take him out to find his old friend Tsunade, Naruto's godmother to become the Fifth Hokage after the Third had sacrificed himself to save the village. Orochimaru also sought her, but for a different reason. Apparently the Third had permanently crippled his arms in order to effectively strip him of the majority of his powers, and the only one he thought possible to heal him was Tsunade, as she was a renowned medical genius and had created the foundation of all modern medical ninjutsu and procedures. She had called the Hokage title a joke and could have cared less for whatever happened to the village, but Naruto had somehow changed her line of thought in a fight between the former teammates of the Sannin. The damn woman had the strength of the Hulk for god's sake...Logan made a mental note to not cross that woman though if they ever met. She had returned back to the village to ensure that the place her grandfather, granduncle, and sensei had protected for so long and began to lead the Leaf towards the future.

Though before they had left, Itachi and his partner Kisame had also arrived at the Leaf incognito, and decided to see when they could make their move, particularly when they could kidnap Naruto and extract the Nine-Tails. Sasuke had gotten wind that his brother had arrived and wanted to end his life and get revenge. He failed miserably, and just like before, Itachi berated and humiliated Sasuke with the same technique he used all those years ago: Tsukuyomi. Leaving Sasuke bedridden for several days. When Naruto had returned to check on Sasuke, he challenged him to a fight that almost resulted in their deaths, but Kakashi intervened to stop things from escalating further, but he was wrong.

Sasuke had left the village to go to Orochimaru for more power to kill Itachi, along with five of Orochimaru's personal bodyguards to escort him to his hideout. Naruto was sent with five others his age to retrieve Sasuke, and they each had encountered the Sound Ninja, each leaving behind one member to fight another of Naruto's team. He finally caught up to Sasuke and they dueled each other, and no less ironic, in the Valley of the End. They went all out, using everything they had against one another, they saw how Naruto had took a lightning enhanced fist straight through the chest and survived...it wasn't something they X-Men had seen since Wolverine took things like that on a daily basis, but it was still amazing nonetheless to see a 13 year old take it and recover like nothing. They had clashed one final time as they were at their limit, and neither of them winning. Naruto was unconscious and Sasuke was severely weakened and had tread onwards to Orochimaru to gain the power he offered. Naruto was taken back to the hospital in the village and Jiraiya had told him they would be leaving within a few months together to train one on one for three years as that was the time length they would have to find Sasuke and ensure Orochimaru could not cheat death again...he reminded the X-Men of Mr Sinister due to his 'experiments'. Naruto would continue to go on missions with his friends from the different squads and Jonin leaders including a completely changed Gaara, his brother Kankuro, and sister Temari. When the time finally came, he left with Jiraiya saying his goodbyes to everyone in the village.

Three years had passed by and he returned to the village stronger, wiser, but still his usual knucklehead self. He reunited with his old team with Kakashi and Sakura, his then best friend. Though it was about that time the Akatsuki began to make their move against the Tailed Beasts and their hosts or, Jinchuriki 'Human Sacrifice' as they were called in his world and capture them one by one to have them extracted and sucked into the Gedo Statue. Out of the seven that they had successfully captured, they were only able to save Gaara, as he was the only person who truly had felt what Naruto had for his entire life...and it pissed him off. Deidara and Sasori were the ones to kidnap him and kill him. But he was brought back when Chiyo, Sasori's grandmother had tagged along with Team 7 had used a technique that had traded her life force for his. Soon they began to encounter more members of the Akatsuki and Jiraiya had infiltrated the Hidden Rain village for info on the group. Nagato and Konan had discovered him and fought to kill their former sensei, but not before he left a message for the Leaf to gain an advantage over Nagato, or Pain as he went by when he reformed the Akatsuki.

Naruto then began to train to become a Toad Sage after hearing the news of his godfather's death. The ability to draw in, sense, and empower one's self with the natural energy around you. And it was something that not even Jiraiya, with all his years of training couldn't complete his training, whereas Naruto had done it within a matter of days. Soon Pain and Konan attacked the Leaf village looking for him and they made one last attack that left the village in ruins and created a massive smooth crater in the center of the village that extended almost to the wall. Naruto had arrived to save the village from Pain after mastering his Senjutsu training, and defeated him singlehandedly when no else could, not even Tsunade. But then when he finally confronted Nagato himself, he said that while he couldn't forgive him, he couldn't bring himself to kill him, for the future's sake. They saw the whole scene play out...and they couldn't believe it. He had managed to talk him into fully believing once more that peace could be achieved in the way Jiraiya once talked about. And fully resurrected all of the people that he killed with the same technique Naruto had used to bring Laurie back, but he himself had died afterwards. Konan had left the Akatsuki afterwards and the village hailed him as a hero, and to Naruto, it was one step closer to his dream of becoming the Hokage.

Though soon after ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village had arrived at the Leaf shortly after Pain's defeat and needed information on Sasuke Uchiha. Before Naruto had left to go on his Sage training, they were in the process of tracking down Itachi as word soon got around that Sasuke had betrayed and killed Orochimaru due to him having 'no further use' to Sasuke. He put together a small team consisting of Suigetsu Hozuki, a young swordsman from the Hidden Mist that could turn his entire body into water. Jugo, a young man whom could draw in all manner of natural energy that had been the derivative of Sasuke's curse mark power, but at the cost of going on murderous rages at any time. And Karin, another relative of Naruto; a girl that could sense out all manners of energy, cloak others, and could even give her own by having people bite down on her. Their goal: Kill Itachi. And they had done just that by some damn miracle, Sasuke had gotten his revenge, but he went insane and further into the darkness, with Obito recruiting his team into the Akatsuki to capture the host of Gyuki, the Eight-Tailed Octopus Ox: Killer Bee, the brother of the Raikage, leader of the Hidden Cloud Village and a master of the Seven Sword Technique, something that just didn't seem even remotely possible...but they saw it eventually. Sasuke had been spotted by Cloud Ninja scouts supposedly carrying away Killer Bee's 'body'. But in fact he was just carrying one of the Eight-Tails smaller limbs away, disguised as Bee. The Raikage became enraged and called for a Gokage (Five Kage) Summit in neutral territory within the Land of Iron, and declared Sasuke an enemy of the village and country to be killed on sight. He wanted to see if the other villages were in agreement that the Akatsuki needed to be dealt with swiftly and immediately, whilst also seeing where their loyalties lied since every other village except his had produced a member of the Akatsuki.

Danzo, the man that had become the surrogate Hokage since Tsunade went into a coma after battling Pain, had agreed with the Raikage and would help with the matter with no hesitation, and that the Five Great Nations would have to work together to stop them, and had put it to a vote see who would lead them, but in actuality, he was simply manipulating them to position himself into a higher place of power over everyone else...something that he had been doing for the majority of his life. Naruto had explained that he was always butting heads with the Third Hokage and had vied for the position at the time. When it came time for the Fourth to be selected, and he had put Orochimaru's name forward to counter the Third's vote for Minato Namikaze: Naruto's father, and was known as the Yellow Flash of the Leaf, and had warrants to say 'Flee on Sight'...the X-Men thought that he was mistaken and should say 'Kill on Sight', but Naruto had shown them a warrant and Logan had translated it directly and said that Naruto was right on the money, leaving everyone wide eyed...seriously you'd have to be extremely dangerous to everything around you to get military institutions to issue a warrant like that, but he didn't even look the part from they saw of him on Naruto's birth night. And when the Third had died when Orochimaru invaded with his Sound ninja, he tried to get the position, but the elders wanted someone younger, someone taught by the Third himself, so that was why Tsunade was chosen, and Danzo hated her for it. Now he had gotten what he always wanted and now he wanted more.

However, one of the bodyguards of Mei Terumi, the Fifth Mizukage had spotted his trickery and called him out on it, but just as he did, White Zetsu had crashed the whole meeting claiming that Sasuke was here, enraging the Raikage, choking and 'killing' White Zetsu in the process of interrogating him. Sasuke had killed several of the Samurai guards, and drew the attention of the Kage, whoever with Danzo escaping out of sight and away from the conflict as fast as possible. Sasuke had held himself against the other Kage and had collapsed due to exhaustion and his other teammates had been incapacitated except for Karin. Obito had arrived to ensure Sasuke and Karin's safety and began to explain his plan to those present and threatened them with a world war if they didn't hand over Naruto and Killer Bee to him. Of course they all resisted and the Fourth Great Ninja War was declared that moment with the Kage now discussing their plan to counter attack what Obito, or rather Madara as he was going by the whole time when the original died. Sasuke eventually caught up with Danzo and fought him to the death, succeeding in killing the older man, and becoming further drawn into the darkness.

Obito had sent Kisame and White Zetsu to intercept and capture if possible Killer Bee, but he failed and Kisame had swapped places with Zetsu in order to infiltrate the Hidden Cloud to gather info on the Allied Shinobi Forces army via hiding inside his sword, Samehada that Killer Bee had taken as a trophy of his victory. Tsunade had finally woken up from her coma and had been informed of the recent events, and they agreed that it was best to hide Naruto and Bee during the war, rather than use them to help turn the tide of the battle as they were the Akatsuki's goal in the war. The war had already claimed half of both sides lives, from the Allied Shinobi Forces and the Akatsuki's White Zetsu Army, though the White Zetsu Army was boosted when Kabuto, Orochimaru's subordinate had integrated all of his research into his body to become superior, had made an alliance with Obito and tried to kidnap the two hosts, but had captured Yamato instead.

Yamato was a Leaf ninja that Tsunade had assigned to help Team 7 as Kakashi's temporary replacement in their second Sasuke retrieval mission along with Sasuke's own replacement Sai. A person that Danzo had assigned to kill Sasuke on the mission, rather than help recapture him, however Sai had a change of heart and began to think more independently of himself, and not like an emotionless tool. Laura took a note from his actions, as she found that he was much like her. Yamato was a victim of one of Orochimaru's past experiments to implant Hashirama's cells into a person. All but him had died from the process, and he was the only one to be able to suppress the Nine-Tails in Naruto in the event that it went rampant and tried to take over his body.

When Naruto arrived at the destination for him to hideout from the war, he began to train to gain control of the Nine-Tails' power, and he finally did and soon befriended him afterwards, but also discovering Kisame hiding in the sword and tried to kill him, but he had commuted suicide before sending Intel back to Obito. They were able to breach the islands' barrier and made their way to the battlefield to lend their aid in the war. Naruto had sent clones to each and every front of the war to deal with the White Zetsu's and Edo Tensei or Reanimated Corpses' of powerful ninja of the past, and had effectively crippled the Akatsuki's side and saving hundreds of lives. The real Naruto and Killer Bee soon encountered a reanimated Nagato and Itachi Uchiha and were pushed to their limits as Nagato was wiping the floor with them, Itachi for whatever reason, had before his death given Naruto a part of his power to cast a powerful over riding Genjutsu on a person, broke Kabuto's hold over Itachi and he went back the Akatsuki's hideout to force Kabuto into submission and release the Edo Tensei.

After a majority of the White Zetsu's and the Edo Tensei Shinobi had been defeated and sealed up tight and later in the night as the Edo Tensei was lifted, Kabuto had finally summoned Madara Uchiha to the battlefield, though the undead shinobi had just severed the link between him and the caster, allowing him to roam free with no restraints and they saw once again a man considered a terrifying legend in Naruto's history. He tore through the 4th division as if they were just paper weights, he grabbed a sword from a fallen soldier and started cutting into the people one by one, then group by group...it was a blood bath. They tried to be clever by catching him from underground and attacking from behind at a distance with explosive tags, but Madara saw right through them, and countered as such. He then was flung back by Temari's fan, and countered her as well with a massive burst of fire that engulfed over half of the field and turned the ground into glass, it took over three dozen men to counter it with massive wall of water, and it drained everything out of them. But also, it gave Madara a massive advantage...it huge mist cloud to give him cover as he carved further into the shinobi with a clone Naruto, Gaara, Temari, and Ohnoki the Third Tsuchikage, leader of the Hidden Stone Village, gathering their strength to make a massive blow on the Uchiha. It was well timed, and had a lot of power behind it, but it was all fruitless as Madara summoned the same ethereal being that Naruto had done before, but it glowed a bright blue, and roared in defiance of their attack and began cutting, slamming and swiping the troops like fly's to a swatter. Gaara and Naruto made one final move against him as the sand had grabbed Madara out of the 'Susanoo' that Naruto had called and the clone hurled a 'Rasenshuriken' at the undead Shinobi, but Madara had gotten loose from the sand, and simply absorbed it with the power of his now revealed Rinnegan, shocking the troops.

They all had a good look at him now...he had a foul and evil atmosphere around him that said: 'Fight me and you will die regardless of what you do.' The X-Men had faced their fair share of enemies with vast power and skills, but Madara seemed on a completely different level entirely. They would never in their wildest dreams be able to beat a man like this, much less even make a scratch on him. Next, Madara had done something that just seemed all too impossible...he summoned meteorites from outer space to crush the division and then summons a massive forest out of nowhere to further kill the shinobi soldiers.

The Five Kage soon assembled to confront Madara on the battlefield, while Obito soon joined as well and had captured some power for insurance that the Ten-Tails could be revived in the event Naruto and Bee couldn't be captured. The power in question were Ginkaku and Kinkaku of the Hidden Cloud Village, the Gold &amp; Silver brothers. They too apparently were descended from the Sage of Six Paths and had once challenged the Nine-Tails to a fight and were swallowed by the beast, and for two weeks they survived by devouring the stomach lining of him...uggghhhh, and had obtained some of his chakra and were empowered by it. Ginkaku had been sucked into a gourd and sealed up tight inside it, while Kinkaku had been baited into getting sealed up into a large urn. Obito kept them on hand in case he failed, and had created his own Six Paths of Pain technique using the previous Jinchuriki's that the Akatsuki had killed to get the Tailed Beasts inside them and had shoved them right back into their Edo Tensei corpses to boost their effectiveness in combat along with each of them having one Sharingan eye, and one Rinnegan eye like Nagato had done. Naruto and Bee were being pushed to their backs and were given barely any time to react, but Naruto soon broke through their mental defenses and entered their mindscapes to help them and the Tailed Beasts escape Obito's control. They soon saw the rest of the Tailed Beasts as Obito made one last attack with several combined 'Tailed Beast Bombs'. Matatabi the Two-Tailed Monster Cat, Isobu the Three-Tailed Crab Turtle, Son Goku the Four-Tailed Gorilla Monkey, Kokou the Five-Tailed Dolphin Horse, Saiken the Six-Tailed Bipedal Slug, and Chomei the Seven-Tailed Horned Beetle. Naruto and Bee soon transformed into their respective Tailed Beasts to counter the attack and soon Kakashi and Might Guy had arrived sometime during the fight to aid the two. Obito saw that he had lost the first round, and was determined to win the second, so he had summoned the Gedo Statue and resealed the other Tailed Beasts back into it, and had thrown the gourd and urn into its mouth to begin the Ten-Tails return. The sky began to turn to night across the world and moon rose up high above the once horizon, and not a single cloud was in the sky. The ground began to shake and rocks began to rise due to the amount of energy being thrown around by the statue, as it clutched its head in apparent pain with all nine eyes wide open and bleeding profusely, and roaring to the sky.

They were able to find a way to finally land an attack on Obito and gain the advantage shattering his mask and revealing his identity to everyone shocking Kakashi and Guy. But Madara soon joined the battle and began to turn the tide against Naruto and the others and the Ten-Tails was revived once again to rampage across the world turning the moon blood red with its power, and now with Obito and Madara there to control its every action. Naruto had tried to sense out its energy levels, but he and everyone else in the room seeing it, saw only that it's power was infinite...everyone had the same feeling wash all over them with heavy chests, trying to catch their breaths and their brains trying to process it's power...the Phoenix couldn't hold a candle light to this...God. The ninja had a plan to at the very least do some damage, but it was all for naught, as the gargantuan creature had swatted them away like nothing...literally...and just saw how vast the gap in power was between the Tailed Beasts.

The entire Shinobi army soon arrived to trap the enemy and end the war within the next few minutes, but as they trapped and blinded them, it transformed and gathered more power to wipe the floor with them, and had just taken out their HQ with a massive Tailed Beast Bomb...300 miles away and with pinpoint accuracy, effectively destroying the brains of the military. But not before they made one last ditch effort of a plan to win the war. Naruto would share and spread his chakra to the rest of the army to boost their power to levels that would be able to counter the two Uchiha's and the Ten-Tails' attacks, but before so they needed to be immobilized. It had been done with two massive slabs of mountain sized rocks and jamming it in between them, but the army had just been hit with a massive attack of wooden stakes strong as steel. Neji, one of Naruto's greatest friends had just taken a hit for him and died in his arms. Now the students knew how well he was adapted to the death, and the violence. Naruto began to quaver under Obito's words and belittlement, but regained his bravado and started to spread his chakra to his allies, and they were able to the tide of the battle, but not before long as they took two massive blasts of fire and a rocking mini-quake from enemy, and then after the Ten-Tails created a massive cataclysm that leveled the entire landscape and transformed once more, growing its own muscle mass and increasing its power again...it astonished the X-Men just its resilience and unyielding will to destroy. When they made the last attack on the Ten-Tails, they were able to separate the Uchiha's from it and sever their control over the mobile force of nature and it went rampant with the Cataclysm. Kakashi had attempted to use the Kamui to send its head away to try and kill it, but Obito lept into his vision and dragged them both into the pocket dimension to fight it out, leaving only the Edo Tensei Madara left to deal with for the time being. The Ten-Tails' mouth began to expand and grow out into a massive flower that began to charge up gigantic Tailed Beast Bomb that soon crew three times the size of the creature itself, and had been launched right at Naruto after losing some of his power to protect everyone from the cataclysm. They had built massive stone walls to hopefully slow down its progression and allow Gyuki time to hopefully change its trajectory and blow up somewhere else, but alas it failed too, and pierced through the stone walls and Gyuki the one to stop its pace barely...

And as their hope slowly died, the destructive sphere suddenly disappeared, confounding everyone. Though just as it did, a tri-pronged Kunai appeared from the air and with a man that wore the very same jacket that Naruto wore around the school, and they recognized immediately who it was, along with three others that appeared shortly after. The previous Hokage's Hashirama, Tobirama, Hiruzen, and Minato that apparently the somehow, and unsurprising revived Orochimaru had resurrected them via Edo Tensei to help them end the war.

The Hokage's then separated and formed a perfectly square formation and threw up barrier powerful to stop the Ten-Tails and pin it to the ground with massive gates that Hashirama had conjured effectively stopping its rampage for a good while. Minato had also activated his own Nine-Tails mode as he sealed the physical half of Kurama into Naruto the night of his birth, and the spiritual half within himself to hopefully keep Naruto from dying due to the amount Kurama had. Soon the army began their offense once again to end the war, with Naruto and his old classmates leading the charge along with a seemingly reformed Sasuke Uchiha. Though the Ten-Tails responded in kind with its own foot soldiers spawning from its own flesh, while Madara wanted to fight Hashirama so badly, he was denied as the only response he got was a 'No' and a Wood Clone to try and engage him. He wouldn't have it, so he decided to just sit it out until he could fight his longtime rival. As Naruto and Sasuke launched their deadliest attacks to combine and empower each other had struck the Ten-Tails and was burning it to death by pitch black flames. Naruto had pleaded with Sasuke to stop the flames long enough for him to drag the other Tailed Beasts out, but he also was told

"No, they all burn." Shocking Naruto that he would be so cold and cruel towards innocent beings after becoming seemingly reformed somehow after fighting alongside his Edo Tensei brother and stopping Kabuto.

The X-Men saw the look in his eye and didn't like it...he seemed to have his own agenda and was only helping because this stood in his way. The Ten-Tails however also said no, in a sense...and detached the burning portion of its body away from it, though as it had done, Obito finally emerged from his portal with a fist sized whole in the center of his vest barely clinging to life. Madara had decided then to use Obito up before he died to use the Rinne Tensei to resurrect himself and become the Ten-Tails host. Obito soon had black rods popping out of his right arm where Madara had regrown that part of his body all those years ago when he saved him from death from the cave-in on a mission with Kakashi and Rin, and it began to coat his right side in black allowing Madara to control him. Hashirama saw what was being done had told them to go after Obito while he and Tobirama made clones to stop Madara, neither of them made it in time to the other and saw that Obito's hair color changed to the same white of Naruto's own current hair, but Minato had teleported a Shadow Clone to strike him down, shocking Minato that Obito was both alive and then one who was inadvertently responsible for the death of his wife, himself, many others, and ruining Naruto's life. Obito had slumped down apparently dead, but proved otherwise as the Ten-Tails began to pull into him and form a glass sphere around his body and eventually melding with him and shattering...revealing him no to be the host of the creature with a vast change to his appearance.

His hair had stayed white, while his body turned a sickly gray and possibly white, with nine magtama on his back along with a circle with several others inside it, and he had ten spiky protrusions on his back with five on his shoulders, and five on his lower back, each of them with flames on the tips. The same gates that had trapped the Ten-Tails had absolutely no effect on him, as he destroyed them without lifting a finger...literally, and had effortlessly cleaved Hashirama and Tobirama in half, within the blink of an eye with some weapon he formed from the palm of his hand, then Hiruzen was the next go as Obito launched another one from one hand, cutting off an arm, and grabbing his head and completely disintegrating the entire body with the exception of his other arm and legs...the witnesses both in and out of the memory couldn't take their eyes off of the man with his precise and surgical attacks. Even the Sentinels weren't so methodic and thorough with their attacks, they at least talked or something...but Obito remained silent the entire time, and it was disturbing. As he attacked more with different methods that became sickening, he couldn't contain his power and almost exploded due the amount of power the Ten-Tails was giving off inside him as he hadn't synched up with it yet. They saw the same thing that had happened with Jean, as she too couldn't control the Phoenix's power and it had killed her.

But just as it appeared to consume him, he finally gained control over its power and his appearance changed once again; the scars on the right side of his body showed a hexagonal pattern instead along with horns on his head that were mismatched heights, nine black spheres that were floating in a circle around his back, an organic looking shihaksho that seemed to meld with his skin and black staff with six rings hooked around another connecting to the staff. Minato tried to attack before Obito had time to react, but he saw through it, and sliced the tip of the kunai off that Minato held, and lopped off his entire right arm. How could something that seemed so harmless, look so deadly with just one hit; that's what the X-Men thought.

But just as he teleported back to Naruto and Sasuke, Obito had left one of his sphere's latched to Minato and was about to explode, a Shadow Clone of Tobirama appeared and 'Gave it back.'

Together, the four of them were finally able to figure a way to hurt Obito, as the deduced that Genjutsu would not work on him, as he would simply see through it. Ninjutsu would not work, as the spheres would simply negate it, which also explained how Minato's arm wouldn't regenerate back despite being an Edo Tensei. Making Taijutsu the only thing cable of doing any damage, but Obito just wouldn't give them an opening, but they found out that Senjutsu was his weakness and they had done some considerable damage to him.

After finally growing too impatient already, Obito spat out the Ten-Tails and it began to transform back into the tree that it once was, with its roots seeking out all of its energy and sucking the life out of those that were unfortunate to become caught by it. Obito revealed that the Ten-Tails' eye would reflect off the moon from the top of the tree, where a flower petal was beginning to bloom, Infinite Tsukuyomi would finally be cast and the world would be under his control, within 15 minutes. Naruto and Sasuke made one last ditch effort to end Obito and drag out the Tailed Beasts from him and end the war after sealing the Edo Madara away that Hashirama finally managed to pin down with several Wood Dragons in another area. Naruto and Sasuke combined their Tailed Beast Mode with Susanoo to boost the attack and had charged to Obito who had a sword a big as they were, ready to cut them down, only the rest of their friends already had massive Rasengans to crush the shield he was holding and they sliced right through Obito, grabbing onto the Tailed Beasts' chakra to drag them out of him. And soon the entire army grabbed on to the tails and were trying to do so and they all pulled with their strength.

But Obito wouldn't let go, and everyone saw the night that had changed him, they saw his original dream to become the Hokage, and the all felt his emotions running through them. But just as they finally were about to make the final pull, they saw Naruto and Obito debating on how the path to peace should be; Obito justified that if both paths lead to the same thing, why would they want the hard road, littered with the corpses of friends and family, Naruto countered and said that the hard way, is the way that truly pays off in the end, and that people are better at the end of the road. In the end, Obito gave in and he was left without the power of the Ten-Tails and had been shown the way out of his darkness.

But, it wasn't the end, they still had Madara left to deal with. As Naruto and Sai began to high tail it to his position. Obito wanted to make amends for what he had done, and was about to use Rinne Tensei to resurrect all of those that were killed in the war, Black Zetsu sprang out of the ground and took possession over his body, with Minato, and the now returned Kakashi to only witness what was transpiring. As Naruto and Sai finally made it to help Hashirama, Madara had thanked Naruto on defeating Obito leaving him vastly weakened and ripping the Tailed Beasts out of him. Just as Sai was about to finally seal him up, Black Zetsu forced Obito to revive Madara to his original self.

The crazed look in Madara's eyes disturbed everyone..."This is it! The body I needed! After all, it's not a real fight without raging blood! And a beating heart! Now I can go all out!" That's when they saw that he wasn't even taking them seriously and was holding back on them the entire time.

Sasuke had tried to burn him with Ameterasu, the same black flames from before, but they only succeeded I burning off his armor with his 'fake' Rinnegan disintegrating out of his eye sockets, a disturbing sight for the X-Men, and revealing the face of Hashirama on top of where his heart was located, indicating the implanted cells that Madara had placed their before his death, and Kabuto's own enhancements. Madara had absorbed the flames and showed that this was all simply part of his plan from the very beginning and everyone played it all out exactly as such, even with some things happening out of order, it had went accordingly...even Sinister never planned things this far in advance.

Madara swatted Naruto and Sai away with simple kicks as his original power now began to return. He strangled Hashirama and stole his Sage chakra to further fuel him, and allowing him to instantly regenerate any damage he took. He went after the Tailed Beasts next and they had given him a good run for his money with Gaara's help, and tried to seal him in a giant mausoleum, but Madara broke out of it with his Susanoo.

Naruto and Killer Bee had joined the fray to add the increasing offensive, and they all were able to stick him down to the ground and stack their tails on him, but he only lost his right arm and got away unscathed. Just as they were about to make their last attack on him, to hopefully kill him for good, a White Zetsu appeared from the ground clutching onto something in his right hand...they got a bad feeling already, and Madara soon sliced the arm off of the Zetsu and attached it to replace his missing one without any problem and placed whatever he had in his right eye socket revealing a bleeding Rinnegan eye. Things went from bad to worse as Madara then just looked at his bleeding body, licked his blood and laughed out loud like a maniac.

"This is my blood! This is my body! Now I can savor battle once again!"

He took some of his blood and used it to forcefully summon the Gedo Statue out of Obito who was still barely clinging to life, and had used one of the Rinnegan's abilities to knock back the Tailed Beasts with a powerful blast that seemed telekinetic in a way. Then he had the Gedo Statue shoot chains from its mouth to capture the animals and dragged them in one by one, despite the resistance that they put up, it was all for nothing. Gyuki sliced a piece of himself off to save Killer Bee, but Naruto was not so fortunate and had Kurama ripped right out of him, with the Gedo Statue opening all nine eyes simultaneously.

Gaara caught the falling blonde and took him back to Sakura to stabilize him, as the only person that could save him was his dad, due to having the other half of Kurama inside him, but he and Kakashi were already dealing with Black Zetsu who had tried to take the Rinnegan eye from Obito, but he resisted with what strength he had left. Meanwhile Madara had just absorbed the complete Ten-Tails and became its host and looking vastly different from Obito. He wore a long kimono-shihaksho that was lined with black and was white overall, his hair turned white as snow, he held a staff that had a tilted C on the top, and had a bone head band that covered his entire forehead along with ten spheres that orbited his back in a circle. But he still needed his left eye, the one Obito had in his left eye socket. He finally arrived to see that Black Zetsu had taken possession of the other half of Kurama at the last second leaving Naruto still dying. Black Zetsu tried to detach from Obito, but he wouldn't have it and used what energy he had left in his Rinnegan to keep him from doing so, and Madara saw what was transpiring and told Obito that he was Madara...everyone that had a hand in Project Tsuki no Me was Madara...he was the most insane man the X-Men had ever seen. Madara had told Obito that he was still the savior that Madara told him he was the day he died, and Obito had trudged towards the maniacal man for whatever reason, but the ninja present tried their best to stop him, but they failed as Madara chopped off Minato's other arm and sent him flying all the way back to the Leaf Village leaving only Kakashi and Gaara left to do something.

Though eventually Might Guy and Rock Lee, another one of Naruto's friends had arrived to help with whatever they could and just as they did Obito finally stood in front of Madara and stabbed him in the heart with his bare fist, shocking everyone, even Madara, Black Zetsu and even the people viewing the event. Obito had explained why he had done so, and had finally regained the sense of who he was in the end, to follow the path that he once set on...the one Naruto had set on to end the cycle of violence that plagued their world.

Madara had tried to rip out the Rinnegan, but Obito slipped through it with his Kamui and managed to steal the chakra from the Tailed Beasts and stored it in the staff that he once held as the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. He eventually was knocked back towards the others with Kakashi and Obito planning to counter attack to save Naruto in time. Obito and Kakashi used their Kamui abilities together to increase the speed of the teleportation to get Obito, Naruto and Sakura into the pocket dimension, leaving everyone else to fight Madara.

Obito had transferred the chakra that he stole from Madara to save Naruto and had succeeded in doing so. While back out in the battlefield, Might Guy had unleashed the 'Eight Gates'; points in the body that restricted a shinobi's power to keep their life force from going out after reaching a certain point in a fight. He had made Madara bleed out and forced him to reabsorb the Shinju tree to recover his power after the beating he took. Though now Naruto had recovered and had the power of each of the Tailed Beasts but their consciousness's were no longer there, and Sasuke soon arrived on the battlefield alongside Naruto.

Sasuke explained that he and Tobirama tried to tag team Madara before he could absorb the Ten-Tails, but they failed with Tobirama being impaled to the ground and Sasuke bleeding out, as Madara had taken his own sword and stabbed him in the heart with it. Kabuto however had arrived just in time to share some of his own Senjutsu chakra to save his life, but not before he had done one last thing to help him even things out against Madara. He was able to evolve his left eye into a Rinnegan but also enhanced it beyond to be able to use the Sharingan, and Mangekyo Sharingan techniques as well along with his new Rinnegan abilities. Naruto had shared some of his chakra to replenish Guy's own dying chakra after using the 'Gate of Death' against Madara, while Sasuke spotted several 'Shadows', cloaked replicas of himself that would fight alongside Madara.

The two members of Team 7 then began their long fight against Madara and soon Kakashi and Sakura joined the fray, but only Kakashi's Sharingan eye was his goal, as he still needed to grab his remaining Rinnegan eye from Obito as he would sacrifice himself to stop Madara from reaching his goal. Despite their best efforts, Madara had gotten past them and ripped out Kakashi's eye and teleported to the pocket dimension to reclaim his eye. Naruto had regrown Kakashi's eye, just like he told his friends when he healed Laurie's arm his first day in the school. As he did, the discussed their strategy against Madara and they came up with a plan to defeat him, and as they did Madara appeared once again, now with both Rinnegan eyes along with Obito whom appeared to be unconscious with Black Zetsu now in control once again.

Emma knew that this is where things would need to be changed in order to keep up with the story that they gave O*N*E. She was about to say something to him telepathically in a separate room to help keep the story straight, but they got lucky as Naruto had kept Kaguya and Black Zetus's betrayal hidden from them. He had told them that Black Zetsu detached himself from Obito leaving his body to fall on the ground, and merged with Madara in to his attire.

Team 7 began their assault on Madara and had been successful for the most part, and they had managed to push him to the edge, but he decided to end it. He hit them each with a major hit to try and kill them, but failed ultimately and had his shadows attack them to keep them distracted as the moon was now within optimal range for him. He flew to the sky and ripped the head brace off of his head and revealed a third eye opening vertically on his forehead with the appearance of the Ten-Tails eye. He closed his eyes in concentration to bring it out, he formed a hand sign in front of his face, and said the words to cast the great Genjutsu.

"Illuminate the World, Infinite Tsukuyomi!"

The moon then reflected the pattern of the third eye and it began to shine a blinding red light upon every corner of the world, but they saw that Sasuke had summoned his Perfect Susanoo to protect Team 7 from the light. Soon the entire world was caught in the illusion, save for Team 7, and the X-Men saw what became of them: Everyone stared up at the moon and their eyes reflected a pair of Rinnegan. This is what happened to everyone when they were affected by the illusion, and soon Madara had summoned the Shinju tree once more to cocoon them and pull them all into their dreams and rule over his 'heaven'.

Sasuke was the only one that was able to see what was transpiring outside the Susanoo, and said that most likely his Rinnegan could counter the Genjutsu as it too was cast by a Rinnegan. They exited the Susanoo and the final fight began once again and the vast amount of chakra being thrown around from them was beginning to tear open rifts in the dimensions and as they finally landed the killing blow on Madara, Naruto fell into a portal that had suddenly appeared below him landing in their reality.

Cooper and Reyes had made the right decision in having him stay with the X-Men, as SHIELD would never give him up with the power he had. So they left back to the recovery process of the aftermath from the Purifiers' attack just an hour ago.

Though Naruto had decided to tell the X-Men and his friends the truth, as he told them they more than likely wouldn't allow him to stay here at all if O*N*E knew it.

He had come clean with them and showed them the Tailed Beasts still residing within him. The X-Men were awed with Kurama's size and the appearance of the others, with the students just slack jawed. He also told them that it was Kaguya herself that was the Ten-Tails after merging with the Shinju tree, and that it was her sons that had stopped it. Hamura, the second wielder of the Byakugan eye, and ancestor of the Hyuga clan. And Hagoromo, the man called the Sage of Six Paths, the first wielder of the Rinnegan, creator of Ninshu and the Tailed Beasts, and ancestor to Naruto. He had sealed the spiritual half of the Ten-Tails inside of him to contain its power and left the physical half, the Gedo Statue to his brother as he took it with him and sealed it deep into the moon, down into the core. Before its sealing it created Black Zetsu and he watched every event from then to now play out and manipulated things from the shadows for centuries in order to revive Kaguya. Hagoromo's sons Indra and Ashura each inherited half of his power. Indra, the spiritual half and was the first wielder of the Sharingan, while Ashura inherited the physical half and had the body of the Sage. Hagoromo on his death bed had called his sons to his room and asked them each a single question to determine his successor. Indra sad that strength was the key to peace, while Ashura said love was the key, soon the Sage made his decision to make Ashura his successor over Indra. Indra was the ideal son, and Ashura was the non-ideal son for the duties that Hagoromo had tasked himself to complete to bring peace to the world. This angered Indra and he soon challenged his brother time and time again for the succession, and their souls transmigrated throughout their descendants to continue the feud, shaping the core of the shinobi world.

Black Zetsu saw the Uchiha as his puppets to manipulate to insure Kaguya's return and had changed the text on a stone tablet that Hagoromo had given to his Uchiha descendants to hopefully change their ways to cooperate with their Senju and Uzumaki cousins towards a better path. Black Zetsu instead had cleverly rewritten it to state that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was the key to the future and by having both Uchiha and Senju blood could one attain peace.

Soon the brother souls transmigrated to Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, with it continuing once and after they both had died. But it was different as Madara saw what the stone tablet had said. Black Zetsu had simply posed as Madara's will and had helped shape the events with Madara and Obito to further his goals, bt soon realized that Obito had no intention of reviving Madara, and wanted to complete the plan himself. This didn't sit well with Zetsu as he then 'lead' Kabuto to discover Madara's body and have him revived first with Edo Tensei, then with Rinne Tensei later with Nagato. Though Nagato's betrayal was unforeseen, and knew that Obito would try use the Rinnegan and decided to stick close to him. As Madara also had foreseen the event of losing Nagato and having Obito set as the backup.

And it wasn't just that...when both Naruto and Sasuke had 'died', it wasn't just that Obito had saved Naruto, nor was it just Kabuto that had saved Sasuke, but the lasting will of the Sage of Six Paths himself that had saved them, and he explained everything to them all that he knew of the past, but he didn't know that it was his mother herself that was the Ten-Tails, nor did he see that it was Black Zetsu that had manipulated the events. He each had given them half of his power in order to defeat Madara: Naruto the physical half, and Sasuke the spiritual half; Naruto would have the body of the Sage, while Sasuke would have the eyes of the Sage, it gave them the chance they needed.

After Madara had cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi...Black Zetsu had betrayed Madara and impaled him through the heart and catalyzing his chakra with the chakra that was being drawn on from the victims of the Genjutsu. Black Zetsu soon revealed that everyone that was caught in it, would become White Zetsu overtime, and that he was Kaguya's will, not Madara's. Kaguya soon emerged from the once bloating and screaming form of Madara and had swatted Naruto and Sasuke with her hair like nothing...the X-Men felt the pressure in the air around them from this woman and saw that she could very well have been from a completely different plane of existence...the power was overwhelming.

Team 7 stayed ready for whatever she might try, but they were all caught off guard when she pulled them all into a separate dimension. And they didn't even notice whatsoever...even some of the students tried jumping to safety only to forget that it was just a memory. Kakashi held onto Sakura hanging on to a scroll attached to the wall with a kunai, Sasuke had summoned a hawk for him and Naruto to land on, while Obito had been stuck to the wall by a kunai impaled through his hand. As Kakashi's scroll was burned by the searing lava pits that had been spat up, Naruto turned away for a split second with only Sasuke able to counter attack Kaguya when she saw an opening to kill the ones that could stop her. Naruto had saved Kakashi and Sakura, and had also grabbed Obito off of the wall and created a Shadow Clone to take care of them while he and Sasuke dealt with the Primordial Goddess.

They had tried brute force on top of a not so sneaky sneak attack and they couldn't touch her. So, they tried a distraction by having Naruto transforming into child forms of her sons Hagoromo and Hamura surprising the hell out of her. He really didn't want to seem like a major league pervert in front of the rest of the adults and his new friends with what he really had used at the time...no harm, no foul if they didn't know...either way, it created the opening he and Sasuke needed to land their attack on her and seal her away. But what they thought was that she would be sealed into a new moon, instead, her entire being began to be sealed into Naruto with multiple tears in the dimension forming and closing spontaneously around them. The clone Naruto threw Kakashi, Sakura and Obito into the tear that had shown the way home, as the original was still undergoing the painful sealing process and after that had landed half unconscious away from the tear, and soon the tear that brought him to their dimension had appeared right below him, and he fell into it as Sasuke tried to grab his hand before the rift closed on him completely. And then it was all downhill from there as the next thing he knew he was in the hospital, the streets, and then the Institute.

The reactions were mixed, but they were mostly shock and awe. They just saw a boy almost single handedly save his entire reality from being consumed, and now he had power beyond even what Jean had achieved in her prime with the Phoenix...Jean...they saw much of her in him. They both had been possessed by some cosmic force, their lives determined and shaped by those around them. Their unyielding will, the fact they both believe so strongly in a better future for everyone to live together in. The lengths they would go to protect their loved ones and the sacrifices they would make. Of anything, one could say that they were parallel versions of each other in a sense.

After that, everyone went back to the recover process while the kids wanted to know more about Naruto himself, but he said that he needed some time alone to gets answers from 'someone', so they went about their own business.

* * *

-Beast &amp; Colonel Reyes-

Hank was discussing with the Colonel what to do with Stryker's body and the pink gauntlet that he was carrying.

"This is ridiculous Colonel Reyes. It has to be examined, it has to be studied! Just let me..."

"Let you what? Do you really think I'm going to just hand over a weapon that can shut down our Sentinels to the X-Men? I'm not a fool, Dr. McCoy."

"A fool? No. Delusional, maybe. Because I forgot that your Sentinels are otherwise invincible. Like when they fought Vulcan...and Apocalypse. Colonel Reyes, by all accounts, Stryker had a piece of incredible technology at his disposal. There could be more of it out there. We have to find out what it is." He hoped that he would see reason on this matter, just as he and Ms Cooper did with Naruto, but one can hope at the least...

"The O*N*E will handle it. And we'll handle Stryker, too. Unless the X-Men want the world to know that a mutant killed the much beloved Reverend. Imagine the backlash. You should be thanking us. The official story now is that he died of natural causes."

Two members of the cleanup crew overheard the argument and thought that it would be a big check or some deal made with the coroners to keep quiet.

"Hey, natural causes, my ass. Gets an arm sliced off and a crap load of boils from insta-cancer or some shit? Yeah right, the coroners gonna get a fat check to stay silent 'bout this crap."

* * *

-Outside-

Outside Julian was standing, his back to a wall, while the O*N*E agents cleaned the backyard from bodies. He didn't like showing that side of his personality. But Cessily had reached him anyway. After seeing Naruto's story, many of them felt really inferior compared to the uber-powered ninja.

"...Well...we stopped them."

"Yeah, hooray for us...but we all know who did most of the work." Especially Julian...all his talk of bravado and he felt like a loser compared to Naruto.

Cessily was still rather shocked about it too, but knew that he was someone that they could trait with their lives. She tried to divert the conversation away from the subject. "How's your side?"

"I'm fine."

"You're such a terrible liar."

"Yeah, well, I'll be fine."

Cessily knew that there was several reasons why he was acting like this.

"Julian, I know Ms Frost is mad at you for some reason...that she made Nori and Naruto the leaders to punish you. And I'm sorry about how Sofia left...look, I know you miss Brian and the others. We all do...but you have to remember that we're in this together. None of what's happened is your..." She was cut off a little rudely, but she knew how he could be at times. She could tell he was a little depressed if anything.

"My fault. Yeah, I hear that a lot. I thought I knew how bad it could get, you know? That we could handle it. But I was wrong." Yup, he finally had the life of an X-Man slap him in the face. He then turned his head to a couple of agents moving another body with Cessily following suit.

"…called themselves Purifiers. Some of them escaped, I heard…"

"Good. They didn't finish the job."

"Jeez, Larry…keep your voice down."

"Nobody could be ready for this kind of hate, 'cept ninja boy. I'm mean...it's like he's a Bro-Jean Grey."

Cessily nodded in agreement, he was like her from what she heard about Jean before she died almost a year ago, back when Xorn posing as Magneto had nearly killed all the X-Men back in Manhattan. She was about to respond, but a shadow had passed over them and caught her attention, especially seeing who it was.

"Julian...look up."

* * *

-Cerebra-

"Please… Do you see him?" Sooraya had wanted to know what had happened to Jay after the attack, but not only that, her faith was shaken quite a bit with Naruto and his power over life and death, and bringing Laurie back from the abyss.

"There used to be so many more of us." Mindee had said while scanning the world using Cerebra. That was her first impression when she saw what had happened on M-Day with Emma and her sisters. It was always shocking in their eyes, unable to touch so many mutant minds, unlike before.

"I know, Mindee." Scott wished the girls could still feel. The lacking of emotion in their voices was…sad, to say the least. "For now, just concentrate on finding Jay." **(AN: Read Phoenix Warsong for more clarification on the matter.)**

"I…I'm not sensing him. He's either being shielded somehow, or he's…"

"Or he's dead." It seemed that even now, though, some traits of their original personalities were still around inside their heads. Like Phoebe's. Even before the sealing of the Phoenix fragment in their diamond hearts, she had always been a bit colder than her sisters. Though it's not like they weren't already cloned from someone who was already a bit of an ice queen. **(AN: The Stepford Cuckoos are in fact clones of Emma Frost made by the Weapon Plus program; read the New X-Men Vol. 1 series by Grant Morrison for more info. Also it's a great series, just go read it regardless.)**

"No, Allah, please… Do not let this happen. This is my fault, I should have gone with him…"

"If you followed him, you would be dead." Stated Laura. She had went to the 'appointment' in Dust's place. She knew what she was talking about. She didn't want her friend to die, not when she had found someone that more than likely that would accepting of her so quickly, regardless of her past.

"But maybe Jay would still be alive!" She replied, raising her voice a bit to hopefully get her point across.

"No, he would not." Again, Laura knew what she was talking about. Suddenly, the third sister, Celeste had turned to Cyclops. She had just been given a telepathic message from upstairs.

"Mister Rasputin is calling you, Mister Summers… He says you have a visitor."

"Tell him it's urgent, Celeste." Ms. Marvel had arrived on campus. This didn't bode well, even though she was a close friend of Scott's.

"Wow." Best, and probably only comment to Ms Marvel's uniform and figure...well, you know how teenage guys can get around women they think of the like.

* * *

-Naruto-

After the long and exhausting storytelling-slash-partial lying, he needed some answers. Mainly from Kaguya. He sat up in his bed in a meditative state and delved into his mindscape to hopefully get something out of her. He found himself back in the room where he first met her in his mind and saw that she already had tea and some pillows laid down in preparation to what was to come.

She motioned for him to sit down and take a sip of the tea. Even though it was in his mindscape, she was still a primordial goddess with power he still couldn't understand, it was more than likely she was just stimulating his senses, it was good tea nonetheless, even though he wasn't a fan of it.

"Well...ask away." She decided to start off the conversation.

Naruto finished up with a sip and sat the cup down to make sure he was paying attention to her, and her reactions.

"Ok...ummm...why did you get sealed inside me, instead of being sealed back into the moon, or in a new moon?"

Kaguya closed her eyes for a moment in thought, and had actually given a possible theory earlier, but she thought about it more as she had seen what kind of person this boy, her descendant was as a person.

"I don't know exactly why Hagoromo had done what he did, but...it's possible that he felt that one day the events that led to my resurrection would be repeated somehow, and he wanted to find a way to prevent that permanently, and he chose the one he thought best suited to the task. He also thought that perhaps you would be able to find a way to bring me back to my old self through your words, but...it's just a theory."

That would explain quite a bit on how she came to be inside him. Though the new powers were something else.

"Alright then, but what about my new Jutsu? The Rinnegan? Sharingan? Wood Style? Is that from..."

She caught on to what he said, and stopped him there in his tracks.

"You do remember that Zetsu used that Indra boy as a medium so that I could return to the world in my original form...my original body was lost to the Shinju tree when we became the Ten-Tails."

She looked down in shame and depression.

"When I willingly gave it..."

From what Naruto just saw and heard, he was now very drawn into what she meant.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah! Back up! What do you mean, you willingly gave your body up?! I thought you tried to consume all the chakra when old man Sage started to spread it to all of the humans across our world?!" His eyes grew wide and he made a few gestures to back it all up ina sense.

Kaguya raised her head and looked at him with sadness in her eyes.

"Yes, I willingly gave my body and psyche to the Shinju tree to uphold our deal."

She paused for a bit and got up and walked towards a mirror that showed her reflection perfectly on her flawless white skin, Byakugan arm Rinnesharingan eyes, long white hair and horn protrusions.

"I didn't always look like this you know."

Naruto had gotten up and walked towards her to see that her appearance had change in the mirror. And he was shocked more than anything in his life. If anything, he could say that she resembled his own mother...he saw that her hair wasn't white, but red and her eyes were a bright shade of purple. The only thing that really set her apart from his mother were the horns that had changed a bit, from being slim and sharp at the ends, they had become curved cones that were round at the ends.

"This is what I looked like before when I was still mortal and in the realm of humans. Our world was plagued by war, as you were told, and I took the chakra fruit from the tree to gain power to end it all. But...I loved humanity, and I had met a man...he was something. He wanted a better world, a better future for the children of tomorrow. And so one thing led to another, we...had a single night together and that was the first and last time I saw him. He died the next day in the wars, and to me that was the end of it. I decided to go against what my advisors said to me as I was the matriarch of the clan, and I took the fruit and devoured it, and so now this was my fated look that you saw. But I had also created a connection with the tree as I had took the power that it grew."

* * *

_-Flashback-_

_**"Mortal! You have stolen my power! Why?!"**_

_She found herself now clutching her head in pain and fear as the voice cut through her skull that felt that it would shatter if it some again. But in fact, a third eye was growing from a spot on her forehead after devouring the chakra fruit from the tree._

_**"Speak!"**_

_She responded as quickly as she could, before the voice became far more violent the next time it spoke._

_"I sought out the power of the Shinju Tree in order to bring peace to my people! To my clan, and our future! Please, do not kill me for a noble goal!"_

_The silence was nice...for a moment._

_**"Hah! Noble...what a pathetic word, for a pathetic reason...you truly believe that this power will bring peace? A joke it is. But, I will allow you this power for my own entertainment...however, if it is spread to other humans that do not descend from you. You will help me retake my power, and in turn I will create a species far more suited to living in this world."**_

* * *

-Present-

"After that, I ended the wars and used the power to insure that there was peace throughout the world. And I treated the people with kindness and sincerity, but too much like children as I wielded power that they could never know. And it came back in my face, the people began to fear and hate me, and it hurt me in my heart. I wanted them to understand, but I couldn't because of the deal. When I gave birth to my sons, I was overjoyed with the fact that I was a mother, of not just one, but two children. Though if anything, it made me far more protective and paranoid about things. I thought that someone would be a fool and try to kill me and my sons in our sleep, and to my own dismay, there was one. I killed him then with my bones."

Naruto raised an eye brow at that. How could you kill someone with bones? Unless you were able to sharpen them like Kimimaro could...ugggh that was disgusting how he did it. But then she turned around and pulled back the sleeve on her right arm and a single bone grew out from it like a chakra rod did. Guess that's where Rinnegan users got it from. As it grew to about a foot long, she flung the bone free and out towards a a vase that was sitting atop a pillar and imbedded it into, within seconds, the base disintegrated in front of Naruto's eyes, leaving no trace of it whatsoever.

"As you can see, I didn't mess about protecting my children. I tried my best throughout the years to raise them, but you already know that I was a horrible mother."

She looked down to the ground in shame. Naruto caught this and was absolutely shocked that this was the truth, but he would be told the rest of the story at a later time as she directed his attention back to the outside.

"We will continue this at another time. You are needed outside."

Naruto had paused a bit at that, and nodded in agreement. He exited his mindscape with still several lingering thoughts about her.

'There was more to it, than what Madara, Black Zetsu, and old man Sage had said about her...just how where things back then like...?'

* * *

-The Med Bay-

"RRRAAAAHHHH! NNNNN!" Josh was convulsing again after turning black when he had killed Stryker.

"Ms Frost said it wasn't a mental condition...that it was physical. Like he had altered his own brain chemistry. No sedatives are working." David had went down stairs to check up on Josh's status, this was something that was theorized that he could do, but it just seemed with his personality that it wasn't possible. Laurie had went down immediately after hearing Naruto's story to make sure Josh was okay.

"I just...I never thought that he would be able to do something like this...it's just one thing after another..." She was still shaken up after being brought back from the other side, when she was shot in the head.

"Yeah...damn, these old gloves itch. So what do we do now?" Nori had to get them on immediately after the attack, otherwise she would be discharging her electricity all around her and pretty much wearing herself out and hurting others around her.

"We wait." David had responded, though in all honesty, he wasn't sure what _to_ do. "Hopefully, his mind will heal itself and he'll just snap out of it." He turned his attention to Cannonball and his sister checking up on him in the room." Thankfully, Sam is gonna to be ok. He was shot three times, point-blank in the chest. Dr McCoy told me he was immortal. I wasn't sure if he was joking or not." Guess he wasn't...

Laurie turned her attention back to her friends. "Did you get a hold of Sofia?

"No." David gave out a simple answer. "I tried but she's gone back to Venezuela. So she doesn't know know what happened yet."

"This has to end, David. We have to do something." Nori wanted to put this crap to an end, and now that a ninja from another dimension that practically saved his world, they had the means, and the chance to do so. "I mean, if it weren't for Naruto..."

"...I'd be dead...and so would a lot of others..." Laurie had finished off the sentence that Nori started, and had been interrupted by someone clearing their voice to get the teens' attention.

"Ahem."

The three turned around to Emma along with Laurie's mother, Gail Collins. She had heard about the attack in the Institute and had driven over to see if her daughter was alright.

"My baby girl, are you alright?!" She hugged her daughter immediately when she saw her. She had feared the worst had happened when the attack happened...although it did, but now they were past that point...something they would have to get out of the way in a bit.

* * *

-Upstairs-

"That's a great costume. Really great. It looks really, really comfortable."

"Santo, please stop talking." Damn teenage hormones. Cessily was thinking about putting a metallic leash around Santo's throat.

Naruto walked up behind overhearing what he was saying and saw the main reason. Yup. Can't control those damn teenage hormones can he? Though granted, he would have ogled the crap out of the woman back when he was younger, though he learned better after taking several right hooks from Sakura, and many death-stares from Granny Tsunade...yeah, he was done with those days, but that didn't mean he wouldn't still make a few quick peeks here and there on some women...when no one was looking...and they couldn't put him through a wall...or stab, slash, cut, and punch him...yeeeaahhh, that was gonna be a rare occasion for him that he'd have to savor for the time.

Though, he did decided to play around with Santo. "Hey, Santo did I ever tell you what happened to Pervy Sage when he got caught peeking on Granny Tsunade when they were still teammates?" He had his fox smile on the whole time he said it and with an innocent tone of voice that sent chills down everyone's spines. They had a feeling the answer wasn't going to be a very pretty one.

"Nooooo...?" He was a little cautious and wasn't too sure if he wants to keep going down this road.

Carol saw the white haired boy and assumed that he dyed his hair that way, and this was the kid Tony was talking about. The one Emma was protecting fiercely for whatever reason.

"Yeah, she broke both his arms, six of his ribs and ruptured several of his organs from her bare fists as a 'simple' punishment. He almost died had they not have gotten him to a hospital right after the beating he got." The terrified look on Santo's face was priceless, his eyes were wide with horror and his jaw hanging as low as it could go. Even Laura got wide eyed at the fact. And Ms Marvel turned her head to the story, also losing a bit of color in her face. She really felt sorry for the guy, even though he was a pervert.

'Better not cross that woman if she ever comes around here.' She thought to herself. Yeah, like that was gonna happen anytime soon.

"Carol!"

"Thank God." Ms Marvel found a rescue from the ogling in Scott's voice. Rescue from hormonal teenage boys. She was seriously debating on what to change her costume to. She hugged him out of affection, though. Not out of 'Thank you God for getting me out of this situation'. "Scott! It's good to see you again. I was worried you might have left for Storm's wedding already."

"Not yet. We probably won't leave for Wakanda until the day of the wedding itself. It's been…well, you know…" He replied, while Santo tried to be cool and Cessily silenced him again. Carol broke the hug and put on her serious face.

"Scott…I wish…I…" She chose her words carefully. "We should talk in private." Scott nodded at that, and made a sign to Carol to follow him. Observing the scene, Julian had the perfect comment.

"What was that about?" Good thing Laura was around.

"She was with him. She smells of Icarus." She said, earning immediate reactions from Sooraya…

"What?" And Julian.

"Cess? You'd better get David, Nori and Laurie."

* * *

-Minutes Later, Outside Cyclops' Office-

"Local police called in the Avengers…she and Iron Man responded." It was nice to have someone with heightened senses around when you needed to eavesdrop. The team was starting to appreciate Laura more and more. "They entered the church…there was strange technology…bodies…she's wearing a lot of perfume."

"Are you serious?" That might prove to be some useful material on Ms Marvel later on, but odds are they wouldn't find an occasion to use it. Oh well…

"Uggh, even I can smell it….and I don't even have a nose as good as yours." Naruto held his nose

"What's going on here?" Asked Noriko.

"We're eavesdropping. Summers is meeting with the hottest Avenger ever." Santo replied in his own way that was just half the point to the matter at hand.

"They went to Stryker's church." Julian provided the other half. He then returned his attention to Laura. "Keep going, X. Without the commentary, please."

"Something had left an energy trail, and it was stationary outside for about 2 minutes, but it turned southwest and disappeared afterwards. When they looked at the third body…"

Suddenly, Laura's expression turned to surprise. Sooraya noticed this. "When they…" Then, it turned to a sad one, she gulped at the reactions that they'd soon be showing. And then she spoke. "Jay Guthrie is dead."

"What?!"

"Oh, no…" Cess and Nori reacted with surprise and horror. Sooraya started crying.

Laura suddenly stopped as she was about to say more on the details of his death, but she thought more on the matter and chose not to, she looked to David crumbling under the news with Santo trying his best to comfort him.

"Dude…dude. I'm sorry."

Further details would just sadden them more so.

"Children…" Who still got enough strength to notice their surroundings turned to see Emma.

"Miss Frost…"

"Return to you rooms. I'll talk to you momentarily. After I have a word with our guest." She walked to the door and stopped inside.

"Still chasing that fantasy life of yours, Carol darling?" Naruto didn't fail to notice the angry tone in Emma's voice. "Tell us… Are you the world's greatest superhero yet? Have you done any day-time talk shows lately?"

"Emma…"

"Emma, you need to hear what Carol…" Emma crossed her arms and immediately cut off the Avenger and her lover.

"Oh, I know why she's here, Scott. I read her mind the second I noticed she arrived at the school. I apologize for my tardiness, but I was trying to calm a mother over the fact that her child almost died today."

"Emma." Scott tried to admonish her. Yeah...he tried to, is the main thing…like that would work, heh.

"Has Carol told you why she's really here? Because it isn't to tell us about Jay." She just shrugged it off, and in a second brought Scott partially to her side.

"What?" He turned to Ms Marvel again. "Carol?"

"It is…but I…I also wanted to talk to you guys about the registration act." She said, trying to regain at least some terrain in the discussion.

"It would appear the 'No' I gave Tony Stark didn't convince Ms Marvel. Because of course, she and the X-Men are so very close." Emma had put emphasis on the word 'very' that she was at best a work colleague. She wasn't discouraged…but she kept talking to Scott instead of Emma. A far better choice instead.

"Scott…I know that mutants have been persecuted by the government. I know you've had to deal with registration before. I know about Genosha. But you saw what happened in Stamford. It's exactly these kind of atrocities we want to put an end to. I know the X-Men want the same thing. I know because I've fought beside you. I know what the X-Men did in the House of M, for everyone. But this is the right thing to do now. We can work together…"

"Touching." Emma decided that the fellow hero had talked enough. "And yes, Carol, we saw what happened in Stamford…because the X-Men went there to help. Which begs the question, where were the Avengers when we needed help? Where were you?" Their surroundings had suddenly changed. A scorching land scape with bodies that resembled kids.

"Emma, don't do this." Scott tried to stop her…but to no avail. The three of them were standing among the flames of the attack on the bus. While Emma talked in their minds.

_'Forty-two of our students were killed in a rocket attack, executed by a religious zealot. A human, who hated mutants simply because they existed. Forty two children.'_

"Oh, god."

_'The youngest was a girl named Amber. She was about to turn thirteen. How odd…I don't see the Avengers here, pulling her body from the wreckage.'_

The scenery changed again. Carol was standing on the grass of their backyard, along with them… Near a set of coffins.

_'This is the funeral we held. You're standing next to Brian Cruz's body. The X-Men are about to put him in the ground. He just wanted people to like him, much like any other teenager. But this is what he got instead. Surely the Avengers came to the funeral. No? Pity.'_

Another change. A woman had a phone in her hand, and looked pretty shaken. Her son and daughter were comforting her.

_'This is Lucinda Guthrie. I have to call her and tell her that one of her sons is dead. And that her oldest son has been badly wounded.'_

"Emma, please…" It seemed like what was seeing and hearing were affecting the Avenger in some way.

_'She sent her children to this place for their protection and education. A place that has sent one child home without her mutant gifts, and now another in a coffin. Tell me, Carol…would you like to make this phone call with me? I assure you, it's not one I'm anxious to make.'_

Then, they were back in the room. "That is what happens when people know where to find mutants, Ms Danvers. So unless you want to grab a shovel and help us lay any more innocent lives to rest, we have no further business to discuss."

"This…this isn't what I intended. I just wanted to ask…I just wanted to help." She was trying to recover from the images burned into her skull.

"Thank you, but you're a little late." Emma scoffed at the Avenger.

"Now. Let's focus on the other matter. The request Tony asked of you. The answer is still no. I guess I have to go straight to him myself and wipe out any of those thoughts. Also, if SHIELD tries anything, O*N*E will block any movement they or the Avengers make against him. Just a little 'heads-up' for Stark."

"Scott..." Carol got the answer and was trying to stay as collected as possible after seeing the horror they had endured recently.

"Come on, Carol. I'll walk you out." Scott wanted to make sure she was alright after being shown what Emma had etched into her mind. That was to far in his opinion.

Emma decided to sling out one last insult in her anger. "Oh, and Carol...if your war is anything like mutant-kind's...you're going to need a lot of shovels."

Scott slammed the door on their way out, leaving Emma to cry to herself out of anger, frustration, and the loss she had endured of losing her students.

* * *

-The New X-Men-

The kids had left shortly after Emma had told them to leave, more than likely not wanting to hear the White Queen's rant on Ms Marvel, and decided to do their own investigation with what they had heard.

"Nimr? What does that even mean?" Cessily said out of curiosity.

"Sooraya said that Jay thought that he'd made a terrible mistake. If Stryker somehow tricked him, or brainwashed him, or something…" Nori had stated, adding into the evidence they already had.

"There's something else. Something we're missing." David decided to take the matters in his hands. His codename was 'Prodigy' for a reason, seriously, it should be a walk in the park. "Laura, you said something had left an energy trail?"

Naruto was shufling through the X-Men's database on a tablet that he had picked up from downstairs in the lab. He researched their enemies of the past to see if they had done something, along with other enemies; other supers had faced against. So far he had gotten through the L's and now working through the M's.

"Yes." Replied the girl immediately. She had been the one eavesdropping on the conversation, after all. "It dragged itself across the floor inside, but flew outside. It was stationary for a while, and then headed southwest, and afterwards disappeared."

"I bet that chick from Medium could figure this out." Naruto palmed his face, while Cess resumed her role of being Santo's maturity.

"Shut up, Santo."

"What? We need someone like her or that old chick from 'Murder, she wrote'. I mean, what the hell is a Nimmer?"

While his friends bickered, David instead focused. He was trying to put together everything he had. The incomplete word 'Nimr'.

Stryker's speech after M-Day...

* * *

-Flashback-

_"When God spared my life, he gave me the gift of foresight. It is my mission to ensure that his miracles are no longer ignored."_

The attack on the school that was so perfectly prepared that it seemed almost unreal.

* * *

-Flashback-

_"No…no, that isn't possible. She's dead. The vision confirmed it. God himself foretold…"_

Almost like Stryker had suddenly got precognition abilities similar to Blindfold.

* * *

-Flashback-

_"Now to fulfill my destiny..."_

Wait a minute. David started to think more and more on the speeches Stryker made at those times, and the evidence at the church, Jay's last act, the word 'Nimr'. Stryker was carrying some kind of robotic arm around...oh shit. Naruto had finally gotten around to the N section of the database, and finally came to the only one that had fit with the name.

"Nimrod." Naruto and David both came to the realization, with everyone's eyes going wide with terror and fear, and with Naruto showing the picture of the pink machine of death...ironic as it was.

* * *

-Dallas, Texas; Eagle Plaza; Forge's Lab-

"Never."

_**"Illogical. The maker will comply."**_ If something that had been built for the genocide of your very own race appeared in front of you, asking you to repair him so that he could continue doing his job, what would you do?

"Go ahead. Kill me. But I'll never help you." No way in hell would he help him.

_**"Termination of the maker is illogical. The maker will comply."**_ He repeated. Forge just gritted his teeth.

"You exist only to kill my people. There's nothing you can do that will make me 'aid' you, sentinel."

_**"Response inaccurate."**_ Nimrod slowly moved back the arm he was using to aim at Forge, reabsorbing the energy he was covering it with. _**"Declaration; this unit has sufficient energy for one teleportation event and one termination before total system failure."**_

The machine was being enigmatic. That was a first. But he wasn't the most advanced sentinel ever created in every timeline for nothing. "What the hell are you talking about?"

_**"****The maker does not understand. Solution; this unit will clarify."**_ Suddenly, Nimrod started projecting images. A shape. Forge recognized it immediately.

"Africa…"

_**"6° 27' N. 3° 24' E."**_ Coordinates.

"I don't understand, what are you…?" Then, his heart almost stopped. Another hologram. He knew the place. Wakanda…

_**"Declaration; the maker will comply with aiding this unit, as before."**_ Another hologram. This time… A human shape. _**"Weapons and teleportation systems ready. Target locked…"**_ No… A mutant shape. _**"Name; Ororo Munroe. X-Man. Designation: Storm."**_

"No…"

* * *

-The Institute-

"I don't know how, but Stryker somehow got hold of it. He knew everything about us, he knew where we would be, when you wouldn't be here…" David trying to make his case as best he could, but the teachers didn't seem very convinced. "That's where Stryker's gauntlet came from. That's what Jay was trying to tell us, it matches everything Ms Marvel saw at the church. Nimrod is back."

"You're killing my buzz, kid." It was one thing after another lately for the X-Men, they really didn't want to be bothered with some other thing trying to kill them.

"Did Mr. McCoy ever get to examine the gauntlet?" David insisted. Cyclops just kept on walking, turning his head to him only to reply.

"No. But Nimrod…it was sent through the Siege Perilous after it merged with…" Scott was trying to find words to put everything about that past mess together in a short speech…yeah, he couldn't do it. "It's a long story. But Nimrod, Bastion, Master Mold…whatever you want to call it…it was destroyed."

"But couldn't this be another Nimrod? Or a Nimrod from a different point in the timeline? His past is still our future…couldn't this be him?" David had a pretty solid theory, but the more one thinks about time travel and alternate realities, the more it starts to fuck with your mind.

"I hate time travel." Wolverine said; yeah, even though he himself got the basic gist of things, this was something that just screwed with you on every level. Cyclops just kept on dismissing most of David's concerns.

"If this was Nimrod, it would have already attacked us." He said, smiling a little sympathetically at the boy. "It was destroyed, David. You're not in any danger."

"You're joking, right?" Said Nori, looking at Cyclops like he had just gone commando in front of everyone. Naruto frowned as well, if there was a potential threat to the village back home, Granny Tsunade would have the lead followed to the letter, and wouldn't stop until the threat was down for the count. David had figured out something extremely important. They could at least give him some credit for it, and follow it up. So David tried to hit the ball again.

"Mister Summers…"

"David, I know what a nightmare the last few weeks have been. I know how you must be feeling." And Cyclops just kept on dismissing it as simple paranoia.

"With all due respect, sir…"

"The O*N*E's Sentinels are here. Apocalypse is gone."

"But…" Cyclops cut off David once more, with a more forceful tone of voice.

"And Nimrod was destroyed." He put the Emphasis on destroyed. But David was not going to have any of that crap, he knew it in his gut that the genocidal machine was back. So he threw out the perfect and most recent example.

"Just like Stryker was reformed?" At that Wolverine smirked and turned around.

"Ouch." He said, though it seemed to have had some sort of effect on Cyclops.

Cyclops at least started to think about it. Not much, though. "...Cable and X-Force dealt with a present-day appearance of Nimrod not too long ago. I'll have them investigate. We'll talk about this more when we get back, David. I promise." Naruto sighed, so he decided to speak out and through his few Ryo into the conversation.

"Great." Nori was just flabbergasted at the whole ordeal. While Santo was curious on another matter.

"Where the hell is Nehzno going?"

"Jay used his last bit of strength to write this super-robot killer's name in his own blood. Just that should make you consider it as more than paranoia."

Naruto returned to his group of friends. Together they watched the Blackbird leave. David had just one comment.

"Well, that could have gone better."

"I can't believe they're leaving." Cessily shook her head looking at the ground. "After everything that's happened, they're just leaving us here alone."

Santo interjected his own disbelief...which was not even relevant to the topic at hand. "I can't freaking believe that freaking Nehzno gets to go to Storm's wedding and we don't!"

Cessily spoke right back at him, and justified the reason. "He's Wakadan, Santo. Storm I's marrying the Black Panther."

"And?"

"He's the king of Wakanda."

"So?"

She just gave up at that point. "Never mind, Santo."

Naruto just watched the whole thing and shook his head.

**"This kid's a complete dumbass...how has he even managed to stick food in his mouth?"** Kurama really had probably found the biggest dumbass on the planet.

_'I have no idea..."_ Naruto honestly had no input to Santo….even he was never this damn stupid before in his younger days.

"Don't sweat it, Alleyne. I didn't do any better with Ms Frost. I guess we just have to wait for this robot to come and kill us. Fun."

Nori shot a bit of electricity to her eyes in preparation. Yeah, she was ready this time for whatever came their way.

* * *

-Dallas, Texas; 16 years from now-

_**"Contact established: Target destination 1.37 kilometers. Location confirmed; designation: Eagle Plaza."**_ The machine scanned to the tower in the distance, looking for any sign of the target. It ran down the biomectric scans of the individuals on the floor that it scanned.

_**"Target in progress: Adult male, designation: Maker X-Factor positive threat level, minimal."**_

_**"Infant male, designation: Munroe, Naze X-Factor negative threat level, zero."**_

_**"Adult female, designation: Storm X-Factor positive threat level, severe."**_

_**"Pre-adolescent female, designation: Munroe, Orora X-Factor positive threat level, minimal."**_

_**"Multiple targets: Two positive classifications: X-Men. Shifting to full combat mode."**_

Now it was ready to strike with what power it had left. It started to run through the various simulations of what course of action itself, and the mutant individuals would take within the time allotted.

_**"Observation: Target designation' Storm' threat to primary objective. Recommendation: Terminate. Initiate contact." **_

Nimrod teleported into the room with the severe threat and its offspring, ready and primed to take action on the organics.

"Nimrod!" Storm was completely caught off guard by the machines' intrusion, she thought it was once destroyed before in the past, but the powers that be apparently said no to that fact. The alrams then went off with the AI's voice going off with bad and worse news.

_"Alarm! Class Omega intruder alert."_ The bad news...

_"Defensive systems not responding."_ The worse news...Forge had just put baby Naze to bed, and immediately headed towards their daughter's room where his wife was reading her a bedtime story. "Ororo!"

"Stay away from my daughter, you monster!" Storm began to crackle electricity from her body, ready to retaliate at any moment against the pink machine.

"Mommy?!"

_**"False conclusion. The child is not the primary target."**_ That's when it hit her...literally, the disintegration ray had completely vaporized storm leaving the little girl at Nimrod's mercy...not that it really had any. Forge had ran back to the room and saw the horror of it all.

"No! No! Please, God, no...let her go..."

_**"Negative. The maker will modify this unit...or your offspring will be terminated. The female first. Then the infant."**_ The genocidal machine held his daughter by her head, ready to crush it at a moments notice, and readying it's weaponized arm towards his son's room to kill him, if he still didn't comply. So...he gave in.

"Anything. Please, I'll do anything you want...just don't hurt them."

The vid-log cut after that, leaving the present Forge in shock at what he just witnessed.

"No..." It was all he could say...'My daughter...dear God. I tell myself that I wouldn't help this monster...but in my heart, I already know I would do anything it asked. To save her. My family.' He though to himself. "What...what did I do? What did you make me do?"

_**"The Maker successfully modified this unit. Temporal travel was conducted on October 17, 2030. Temporal target was reached 1.82 years ago."**_

"No...that's not possible. I couldn't..." It just didn't make any sense to him...for the moment.

'But even as I say the words, my mutant power kicks in. Just at the thought of an actual time-travel device, I'm already inventing it in my head as the machine talks. It tracked here from the future.'

_**"Negative. Your modifications are present. Declaration: This unit requires repairs. Primary objective in progress. The Maker will repair this unit."**_

"Alright then...I'll repair you, just don't hurt her..." He needed to buy some time, enough to get a warning out to the X-Men. He dragged the hunk of metal up to a work bench to start repairing it, as slowly as he could.

"You said you came here almost two years ago...what took you so long to find me?"

'Have to buy time. If I fix this thing, it's going to kill every mutant kn the planet. Including Storm, even if I asked it not to. Think, Forge.'

_**"Chrono-spatial error. The location of Eagle Plaza shifted in the past. This unit did not move spatially. Eagle Plaza did. Error."**_

"What? That doesn't make sense." He lied to pry any info he could use out of the thing, thinking that he could use something, and perhaps stall it out.

'But it does, the time machine in my head doesn't match the one inside Nimrod. My future self didn't build a time machine for this killer. He built something else. Something to save his future and his past. He sent Nimrod to a different timeline.'

Nimrod then began to name off certain events while it was here in this timeline.

_**"Error...unknown chronal...time device negatively affecting systems. Database in flux. Historical data being altered. Error systems shutting down. Warning. Unknown entity breaching this unit's time device. Warning, entity now labeled as Meddler has removed part of time device. Specifics: Time module. Space module still installed within unit. Cannot properly make jumps."**_ The time when it first arrived in this timeline, being discovered by Stryker in his church and the 'Meddler' dismantling a piece of him.

_**"Backup systems online: System error. Assimilating new data: Error. Unit taking damage, new primary objective...self-preservation. Error. System re-entering shutdown." **_The Purifiers trying to dismantle him even further and connecting his stsems with their own.

_**"System rebooting; alert! Mutant presence detected. Scanning...sound amplification 230%. Mutant detected; Jay Guthrie aka 'Icarus'. Terminate." **_The first time it tried to escape only to be forcibly shut down by Purifiers and hearing Icarus' voice upstairs.

_**"Action failed. System rebooting. Action success. System online."**_

_**"Alert. Enemy combatant, designation: Stryker accessing this unit's databases. Error. DataStream in flux. Primary objective: Escape. Solution: Altering data imagery. Database history shows Stryker's termination by mutants, designation: New X-Men. Solution: Alter database to make Stryker believe he will defeat the New X-Men."**_ And finally showing the 'victory' over the New X-Men, falsifying the history to gain time to further power up.

Forge finally saw the whole thing, and only had one comment. "Thanks a lot, alternate-future me." But then Nimrod began to do something after seeing some flaring from it's chest. "Whoa!" He jumped back in an over dramatic way to hopefully fool the machine.

_**"Chronal error...databases in flux...error...errorassimiltaing changes to database. Assimilating."**_

'It's now or never, Forge.'

He backed up slowly towards the bench that had the emergency call switch that he had built into Noriko's new gloves, hoping that she had them on and could show the X-Men what was going in right now. But wether or not Nimrod had actually known what he was going to do, he shot the bench with his arm ray destroying it. And he didn't look to patient nor pleased. Though it was understandable, I mean wouldn't you be the same way if you too were in such a state?

_**"Unacceptable. The Maker will repair this unit. Now."**_

'Come on, X-Men. Hear me dammit, someone...'

* * *

-The Institute; Nori's room-

"David… No…" The blue haired girl's slumber was interrupted by a sudden electrical noise. And suddenly she felt her eyes being lightened by something. She slowly opened her eyes to find them filled with a bright blue light. "Huh?" And then she found her gloves projecting an image. The said snapshot. Nimrod pointing his charging arm at Forge. "Ahhh!" She calmed down when she realized it wasn't happening in front of her, in her room…weeeellll, maybe a bit. "Oh my god." She ran out of her room shouting. "David!"

* * *

-Naruto-

Naruto just happened to be passing by the said hallway, as he came across a picture hung on a nearby wall. He looked and saw it pretty clearly, despite the lights being completely off. He saw five teenagers in black and yellow spandex with masks covering the upper portions of their heads, leaving their mouths and eyes open, though the girls mask only covered the upper portion of her face, leaving her hair free to flow and unhinged from the boys' masks.

He instantly recognized Cyclops from his trademark visor, though the one with big hands and feet he couldn't recognize very well. The one covered in snow and the one with wings were unknowns to him, nor did he know the bald man in the wheelchair, he assumed he was their teacher. But the girl is what really caught his attention, she had a bright smile on her face that drew him into her, and thought that she was really pretty, mostly her hair though is what attracted him more so.

He got this strange feeling that he had met her somewhere, or something...it was itching him in the back of his head. Who was she? As he thought to himself, he suddenly was hit with some sort of vision of him and said girl dancing with him out on a pond on the tip of his toes. She had her head laid on his shoulder smiling, and with small tears forming in her eyes. He also seemed to enjoy it as well, judging from his own smile and the large blush he sported.

He was brought out of it as he heard Nori's voice in the hallway, and ran towards her wanting to know, just why the hell was she yelling at 2:30 in the morning at night? Though he was afraid of the answer. And he got it shortly after the team assembled in her room.

"I'm going to punch mister Summers in the face." David started off.

"Get in line." Noriko followed.

"I would do something, but I'd go overboard and probably make this place a crater." Naruto said gritting his teeth in frustration and anger. Various comments and reactions to the sight of the pink robot that was on their minds ever since they put together everything. They were right. The teachers were wrong and didn't listen. And now, some friend of the X-men and Noriko named Forge was in a life-threatening situation. Along with all the mutants in the world.

"But why? Why go after Forge, of all people?" Cessily kept on watching the hologram, trying to find an explanation to the question she had just asked…a little rhetorical though it was. "If this thing was in New York with Stryker, there's a ton more mutants here to kill. Why go there?"

"Look at the hologram. Nimrod is damaged." Laura stated, having already found the answer after analyzing its state from the hologram. "Its goal is most likely simple survival. According to his file, Forge could repair Nimrod."

"We have to tell someone immediately." Sooraya talked, turning to David. "We cannot keep this information to ourselves."

"You're right, Sooraya…I'll try and contact the X-Men." David said, addressing everyone. Julian reacted with a dead serious face.

"The same X-Men who assured you Nimrod was destroyed? The same ones who left us here for Stryker to pick off one by one?" But his tone was only half sarcastic. "This guy Forge is fucked."

"No he's not. He's got us." Naruto spoke up amongst the kids, sitting up from the bed.

"Naruto's right." Nori said next, with a tone of voice suddenly got a tone of authority and command, her hands sending little bolts flying around her. If it wasn't for the fact that the girl was wearing just the top of her pjs, it would've just made her look like a badass. She raised her head and turned to her teammates. "This has to end. We have to end it. 43 of us are dead. Jay is dead. Josh went insane. And who knows where the hell Kevin is."

Naruto crossed his arms, focusing on Noriko's speech. It seemed like the girl had suddenly gotten the sense of Colossus' words during their last exercise.

"The X-Men can't save us. The O*N*E and the Sentinels are a sick joke. They'll probably be coming after us next. And the Avengers don't care." Soon, everyone was focusing on nothing but Noriko's words and her eyes.

"It's up to us." Naruto smiled. "The X-Men are half a world away. We can't wait for them. Forge could still be alive. And if he's not, then Nimrod is coming here next. This thing was involved with Stryker. It helped him kill our friends." Even Julian had gone silent, which was a rare thing for him to do. "So we'll save Forge. And we'll take this thing down. We leave in fifteen minutes." Everyone was silent for a bit…until Nori turned to Naruto asking something from him.

"You think that was good enough?" She sounded a little unsure of herself seeing as a ninja that was superior to them in every way had done things they had never dreamed of, nor would they have the guts to do.

"Simple, sweet, and to the point. It was pretty good, I honestly am not one for long speeches, and they tend to bore the crap out of me. Now…what are you all sitting around for, guys? Let's go get ready!"

* * *

-Laura and Sooraya-

Allah, forgive me...wash away the blood on my hands. She prayed for forgiveness after the event in the Institute, though Laura had understood what she said, and threw her own advice in.

"They would have killed you Sooraya. And they would not have prayed for forgiveness afterwards."

"Jean Grey told me that X-Men do not kill." She admired Ms Grey for many reasons, teaching that heavy violence to such things never solved the answer.

"And where is she now?" Laura shot a bit of a low blow, though she wanted to get her point across on the Purifiers.

* * *

-Cessily and Victor-

"Wha-hrmph!" Cessily had woken Victor up, and she needed him to keep quiet on the matter.

"Shhhh! Victor...we need a favor. The O*N*E are going to barge in here in about 20 minutes looking for us. We need you to cover."

He looked a little unsure of what she was asking if them, though his look may be contributed to being rudely awakened and the lights turned on in his room, making him squint just to see.

* * *

-The Hangar Bay-

Julian and Santo were the first to arrive down stairs with Naruto not far behind. Naruto had the Gunbai on his back knowing that Nimrod could shell out massive energy blasts that he more than likely could reflect back at it, plus he'd be able to test out the Preta Path this time around, since he hasn't gotten the chance to test it out yet with Cyclops.

"The basketball court is right over us...the blackbirds exit through there..." Julian was curious in their means of exiting the place successfully.

"So I know Mister Mega-Brain 3000 is cooking up something, but the Sentinels are Sta ding right there. If we take the freaking jet, aren't they gonna notice?" One of the few things Santo says that's actually smart. A very rare sight indeed.

"Yep. And then they'll probably shoot us down." Julian made a pretty good point. Take out the engines, leaving the occupants inside alive.

"That's why we're not going out that way." Noriko had said.

"Before the mansion was destroyed for, I think, the fourth time, there used to be a tunnel that the Blackbird used...it led to the cliffside about a mile and a half from here." David had shown them the pad that he had with the schematics on the screen.

"We're taking it, I can coat the jet with my Susanoo to break through the Cliffside since it's sealed up and caved the hell in." Naruto had pointed out. He, David and Nori discussed the plan of action on how to get out, and they would hopefully be able to make it to Forge in time before he ended up dead, and trash Nimrod while it was still heavily damaged.

"Why can't you teleport us there, dude?" Julian knew he could do it after seeing it from his story.

Naruto pulled out a tri-pronged kunai with the formula wrapped around the hilt. "Because, I'd need a set destination with one of these at the end, or another person or object with it imprinted on them, like the one I gave to Rachel." He put it away in the holster on his leg.

"When this is over, we're getting a teleporter, or you should make it a thing to get those spread out around the country."

"You sure you just didn't ask her to marry you or something, Naruto?" Nori decided to poke a little last bit of fun at Naruto before they headed into their next big ass fight.

Naruto turned around and had flames in place of his eyes along with his head enlarged quite a bit and the whites of his upper teeth showing, while raising a fist up in the air. "GRRR...No, I didn't ask her to marry me, I gave it as sign that she's my new best friend, dammit!" Then he dropped the fist down and hung his head in depression with some sort of dark wavy things covering the upper portion of his head. "But I really miss her though..."

Noriko rolled her eyes at the ninja's response…seriously, it was too easy to get a rise out of him when she brought up him and Rachel. Though it really has been a while since she was here and she left with other X-Men into space. Nimrod had apparently followed her from her timeline, and they could really use her help in taking the bastard down. The kids boarded the jet one-by-one, and took their seats.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Naruto had turned around, after hearing Santo's words and he sweat dropped at them. David had chosen a strange kind of uniform, compared to everyone else's. "Did you join S.W.A.T. or something after you lost your powers?"

"You ever hear of a student named Doug Ramsey?" Replied David.

"No."

"That's why I'm wearing this."

"I brought guns." Laura stated. He should have seen that coming.

"Wonderful." David really meant that. Didn't know how much good could guns do against Nimrod, but it was worth a shot, Cable used them all the time, and they got the job done a lot of times.

"Ok, all systems set, everyone strapped in, Naruto, ready when you are."

"Got it." Naruto channeled chakra to his eyes and they changed to his EMS form and the Blackbird soon was coated in black ethereal armor with a hood and mask covering the front of the jet. Underneath and above it, it had two arms, each with swords pointed straight at the hangar door, leading out to the cliff.

The Blackbird soon accelerated towards the door and the swords already cutting through the door and the rubble of the cliff. The jet burst through and the armor was dropped afterwards, leaving back to its original bare form.

"Alright, we're through, nice job Naruto."

"Easy." He gave a thumbs up to David, with the others not very surprised any more by what he could do after seeing his life story.

"Are they following?" Noriko's immediate concern was for the Sentinels.

"Miss Frost is going to kill us. Even Cyclops is going to kill us for this." Cess' concern was for something else. Noriko twitched at that.

"Are they following?!"

"No. No reaction from the sentinels." Laura had taken upon himself to check the secondary systems of the X-Wing. Her mind had been filled with those as well.

"Nobody's going to believe that worked." David stated. Then the realization hit that it had indeed worked. "Oh, god. What are we doing?" Santo just found the situation hilarious.

"We totally escaped. Those Sentinel pilots are so fired. I mean seriously, they suck on a weekly basis."

_Uh, command? Six mutants just dropped off the grid…I really, really hate this job._

* * *

-Eagle Plaza; Forge's Lab-

_**"Commence repairs."**_ It didn't have the tone, but it was an order. And Forge replied with the same words again.

"I can't! I told you. Your technology is too advanced…there's too much damage." Forge approached the thing he had been working on for days. The surprise he had told Scott about. It was covered with a big cloth.

'_Can't wait for the X-Men anymore. Switching to plan B. Making up plan B as I go.'_

"But I can give you something better." He uncovered it showing off a less advanced, blue version of the same robot that was menacing him. That was the project he was working on. Another Nimrod, with a simple, but big difference. "I can transfer your programming and A.I. into this body. It should serve your needs, sentinel."

_**"SolutionError. Error. Chronal flux in progress."**_ Forge had understood, Nimrod's own time was beginning to change with this new revelation. _**"Assimilating changes to database. Solution acceptable."**_ And another thing that managed to always unnerve him was how the robot sometimes managed to sound so human_**. "This has always been the solution."**_ Nimrod began to display a hologram. Of the United States, with a big X-mark travelling across them.

_**"This unit will come online in 27 minutes. In 24 minutes, six mutant signatures will arrive at this location. Designation: New X-Men. Accessing revised Database. Ashida, Noriko; Designation: Surge. Will die first. 31 minutes from now. Kincaid, Cessily; Designation: Mercury. Will be terminated 34 minutes from now. Vaccardo, Santo; Designation: Rockslide. 37 minutes from now. Qadir, Sooraya; Designation: Dust. 35.6 minutes from now. Keller, Julian; Designation: Hellion. 35 minutes from now. Unknown female; Designation: X-23. 38 minutes from now."**_

He prayed to God that Plan B would work before they got here.

_**"Solution in progress. Begin Transfer."**_

* * *

_**And done! This chapter took forever to write…believe me. Now the next chapter will be the New X-Men vs Nimrod and it will be a little different from what was originally written in the cannon of the comics. So keep on reading, reviewing, and favoring this story guys, it makes me happy to hear what you guys have to say about. No flames please as they will be deleted. Also, keep on voting on the poll on my profile, until next time, see ya'll later :). **_


	9. Chapter 8: Nimrod Part 2

_**And we're back again with another chapter, this one didn't take me as long as the others as I had the entire weekend off from work and I was completely lazy the whole time watching X-Men: Evolution...dammit I wish that 5th season went into production, it was one of the main reasons I got into X-Men, oh well. Now to clarify on the matter of Naruto retelling his story, it's because the rest of the X-Men and the O*N*E heads wanted to the truth behind him after the Rinne Tensei was used to bring back Laurie. I also wanted to show their reactions and thoughts on the people and events as well, for those of you who more than likely didn't pay attention very well to the last bit of Chapter 6. Now that that's cleared up, on with the story! Also I own nothing, otherwise I'd be sitting a big fancy chair in an office with millions to my name lololololololz.**_

* * *

Chapter 8: Nimrod Part 2

* * *

_"Hi everyone, my name is Naruto, and I'm sure that many of you already know my life story, and how I also once liked the color pink...you see, I liked pink mostly because I always was next to Sakura back in the academy, and I always thought that her hair was so pretty. Pink became my favorite color after that, except the color orange. Nothing can beat the badassnes of that color for damn sure, but anyway, I liked it for the longest time...until now...now I hate the damn color, as a giant pink machine of death is coming right at us...yeah, it's a pretty good reason to hate the damn color at the moment."_

* * *

-Sometime Before; Forge's Lab-

* * *

_'Please let this work.'_

"I need to access your mainframe for the transfer." Forge grabbed a hold of the connection cables.

_**"Proceed. Unit online in 24 minutes."**_

_'Unbelievable…it's seeing the future being rewritten. Please, please let this work.'_ He connected the two Sentinels, and as soon as he did, sparks of pink energy began to crackle in around the room. He covered his eyes, instinctively since he didn't have his goggles on.

_**"Connection established. Commencing transfer of programming. Commencing transfer of necessary hardware not found in host unit."**_

Forge could not help but admire the technology of the Sentinel, even if it was the bane of his race. It was transferring its own programming and at the same time upgrading his new body to suit its needs. "Incredible." It was all he could say about the damn thing. Nothing more, nothing less.

_**"Transfer in progress, 3 % complete. Original unit power cells stabilized. Alert! Mutants detected."**_ Forge gritted his teeth. They were here already? Then he thought that he didn't know the range of Nimrod's primary scanner. _**"Threat designation: New X-Men entering area. Calculating termination solution."**_

* * *

-The New X-Men's Blackbird-

* * *

The alarm started to go off as they entered Dallas airspace, with David trying to shut the damn thing off.

"David? Is everything ok?" Nori was getting a little nervous after a while when the beeping went off.

"Everything is fine, Nori." He tried his best to assure them, but Laura decided to prove him otherwise.

"No it is not."

"Yes, it is."

"I've been watching you. You do not know how to fly this plane."

"Well, I know how to use the autopilot."

"That is not flying." It really wasn't when you thought about it.

"Are you sure we're okay? What's with the beeping?!" Nori asked. David just groaned.

"I know, I know. Switching verbal interface on." Naruto had a bad feeling in his gut already.

"Massive energy build-up detected, location: Eagle Plaza. Contact imminent, take evasive maneuvers." The Blackbird's AI said aloud over the intercoms.

"Oh, no…" Naruto blinked again, hearing the sentence and David's words.

"What does that…" Then, the explosion. The Blackbird getting hit by said energy buildup. And Naruto cursing loudly. And Santo hitting the floor of the jet, since he didn't fasten his seatbelt. "Shit, Kami dammit!"

"David!" Nori screamed. He was the one holding the cloche, after all.

"Altitude Warning; 10,100 Feet."

"Come on…pull up…" David was trying his best to avoid to crashing head first and exploding along with the Blackbird in the process. The computer kept on lowering the distance between them and the ground...yeah not very comforting.

"Where's the oxygen masks?!" Naruto could swear that Santo was actually being serious this time. He, instead, just focused on trying to find a solution. And it popped in his head. "Everyone gather around me fast!"

The rest of his teammates unfastened their belts and gathered around Naruto, as he transformed into his Six Paths Mode, and had one of his Goudama expand and surround them.

* * *

-The Institute; O*N*E Interrogation Room-

* * *

Back at the Xavier's Institute, another young mutant was in quite a predicament. As in, being interrogated by the O*N*E's officers with a set of rifles pointed at his head. And Anole started asking himself what the fucking hell possessed him when he promised Cessily and the others that he would cover them. It couldn't have been her feminine ways of persuasion. He was gay…WTF! Oh, well can't change the past anyway…gotta work with what he's got right now.

"So, uh, yeah…I think they may be with No Girl. Yeah…" The sweat running on his reptilian head told a lot. But he was covering for them the best he could.

"'No Girl'?" Colonel Reyes raised an eyebrow. He was skeptical about someone with a name like that?

"No, wait! They might be in the danger cave. Did you check there?" He said. He was getting the hang of it. Valerie Cooper was short on patience on the other hand.

"This is no times for games, Victor. You and your friends are in very serious trouble! Where. Are. They?!" Anole breathed in and out sharply. He had to endure.

"Sometimes students just get randomly kidnapped. Or worse!" He wasn't telling much of a lie. "They could have been sucked into another dimension!" The colonel raised his head to the ceiling and rolled his eyes back.

"This is a waste of time."

"It happens all the time! They could be in…in Asgard! Or space! Seriously! Have you ever heard of Mojo, Ms Cooper? They could have been turned into babies!" Valerie just walked out saying one last thing. She'd just about had it with the kid, he wasn't budging.

"I'm calling Cyclops."

* * *

-The New X-Men-

* * *

"Well, I think we're gonna need a couple of bus tickets to get home." Julian remarked at the badly damaged Blackbird they had 'commandeered' from the mansion and flew it down to Texas to save Forge and kill Nimrod.

"Though I gotta say, nice flying Alleyne." He was being sarcastic this time to poke a little bit of fun, before shit hit the fan.

"That's a landing we couldn't walk away from, cause you suck at flying dude." Rockslide chipped in afterwards.

"You can fly next time, Santo." He retorted in a sarcastic manner.

"Awww, yeah!" He fist pumped in the air as a good sign in the future.

"Quick thinking with that uhhh..." Nori was trying to find the word for whatever Naruto did to save their asses.

"Goudama, yeah, didn't really tell you guys what my Jutsu's names are, oh well. So, now we need a plan."

"Get in there fast and kill the damn thing before it gets repaired. I got nothing else really. Unless you do...?" Nori asked the white haired ninja.

"Sneaking in would give us an advantage, if this was any normal opponent. Buuuuut...if he was able to shoot us out of the sky due to sensing us, then more than likely he knows we survived also. So, stealth is out of the question. Let's just find an entrance and bash some heads."

"My kind of plan! Yeah!" Santo was just too easy to get excited. The rock golem ran towards the front entrance and broke it with a kick. They followed him inside. Naruto looked around. It really was a strange place. The architecture was interesting to say the least, masks and paintings hanging off the walls. Glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, it was weird in his eyes. Speaking of which...it was dark for everyone else, but his eyes saw everything in the dark. No wonder the Uchiha were touted with high visual prowess.

* * *

-Forge's Lab-

* * *

The lab was basically in shambles after Nimrod released the blast from the lab to shoot the jet down out of the sky. And Forge was down on the ground by the door trying to think of something...but the deaths of the kids were still very fresh in his mind.

_'Children. Dead because of me. Because I called for help.'_

_**"Transfer 57% complete."**_

_'Because I didn't think fast enough. I didn't have enough time.'_

_**"Error! Temporal flux in progress. Assimilating changes to database. Time modification hardware transfer in progress. Time to completion: 7.4 minutes. Alert! Mutants detected. Designation: New X-Men, approaching this location. Analysis: Subjects survived initial assault."**_

Forge closed his eyes in thanks to whoever was watching the whole thing. _'Thank you, God.'_

_**"Transfer must not be disrupted. Solution: Activate maker's failed prototype units, transfer Nimrod directives to them. Objective: Protect this unit. Objective: Terminate New X-Men." **_Nimrod then began to send its own programming into the failures, as they were dubbed in order to prevent any interventions by the mutants below. It sent the commands via some sort of electric sparks, containing the data...the future works in strange ways as it would seem.

But Forge wouldn't have it, he tried to do something..."No! No! I won't..." But he couldn't...

_**"Objective: Protect Nimrod unit. Declaration: The Maker will not interfere."**_ The rejects had shot him back with a concussive blast of sorts, and trapped him a stasis field to prevent him from tampering with the transfer.

"NO!"

Nimrod simply continued with the process. _**"Solution in progress. 6.1 minutes until transfer is complete." **_

* * *

-The Lobby-

* * *

"Wow, it's dark in here." Cessily commented. David had already theorized what happened to the lights.

"That blast must have knocked the power out. Or the jet crashing outside." He said. Cessily rolled her eyes.

"When I said dark, David, I really meant creepy."

"Oh." A source of light came in the shape of Noriko's right hand glowing with electricity. "Let's keep moving." The group started moving together through the now dark halls of the building.

Naruto kept his eyes and ears peeled for anything, but he was able to sense someone above them. More than likely it was that Forge guy they saw in the hologram, but then he started to sense several others, but their energy was weird, then they started to move in a fast and aggressive pace towards them. "Wait guys stop." Naruto held his hand up in signal, but Dust spoke up next.

"Something is not right." David started looking around.

"Did you guys feel that? It's like the building is vibrating." Laura started focusing on her sense of hearing and touch, much more heightened than anyone else's in the group, second to Naruto's. She started counting and differentiating the vibrations, giving them an owner, a direction and a distance. Cessily managed to catch something with her ears.

"Wait…I think I heard something." She stopped and started looking around as well.

"I hear them too. I count nine…no, eleven… They're above us, moving this way." At Laura's words, Cess started getting a little nervous.

"Wait, eleven what? I thought there was only…" But Naruto saw what it was, "Santo behind you!" And then something came in to everyone else's sights. A machine...but not Nimrod thankfully. It silently came out of the shadows hiding and punched Santo right in the kisser.

"Santo!" Nori was the one closest to Santo and the robot. She reacted first, gathering more electricity. That earned them some more light, other than her being battle-ready. "Everybody get ready!"

"Stay close to one another and watch each others backs!" Naruto said as he immediately grew rods from his palms and launched himself towards the first machine and managed to cut its head off. _'Wow...the rods really are durable, but maybe it's due to my own chakra enhancing them. When I fought against Pain, they broke after they went up against something harder than them.'_

_**"Contact established. Termination in progress."**_ The machines surrounded the rest of the kids and the brawl began...

* * *

-Forge's Lab-

* * *

_**"Transfer 98% complete. Transfer 99% complete. Programming and hardware transfer complete." **_The old Nimrod dropped to the ground lifelessly, as it was useless to the futuristic Sentinel. Now it had a new body to continue its genocidal campaign against mutant kind..._**"Rebooting. Nimrod unit 2.0 online. Mutants detected, designation: Forge. Designation: New X-Men. Commence termination."**_...or so it thought. Time for Plan B to go into action.

"Initiate Forge Protocols, password: Ororo! Override foreign programming!"

Forge wasn't an idiot. When he built the machine, he had two things in mind to ensure it did what he wanted, and without consequence. First, that he and only he, would have the means to control it. Secondly, it was a copy of Nimrod, true. And make sure that it could match its power levels, which was the idea. His directives were the complete opposite of the death monger robot. Nimrod was the mutants' enemy. **"Protocol 1: Protect Mutants."**

"Release the stasis field." Forge ordered. The robot complied, and dissipated the field of energy keeping Forge from moving. The mutant approached his creation smiling. He had just outsmarted a super-sentinel from the future that could see it changing constantly. "Not half bad for 'Plan B'. I think I can almost hear Nimrod screaming inside you."

**"Error. This unit does not detect specified audio signal. Awaiting command."** Then, a sudden explosion brought him back to more pressing matters.

"The kids…" He had forgotten about the reprogrammed rejects. "Initiate full defensive mode and get downstairs! There are mutants in trouble down there!"

**"Protocol 1: Protect Mutants. Commence defense, subjects found: New X-Men."**

* * *

-Downstairs-

* * *

Was this it? He was expecting more death rays, something else entirely…but the only thing they could do was just punch them? He chuckled a bit and dodged another attack and jumped in its back near its top. Then he brought his rod down into the skull to tear it open and peered into the circuitry. "Well, this looks important." He took a regular kunai with an explosive tag attached, and staked it into the skull making the Sentinel reject squirm around trying to get Naruto off its back, but failed. Naruto jumped off the back and let the tag do its work, and exploded making a series of pretty and flashy lights upon its death. "Preeetttyyy..." Naruto's eyes grew in astonishment and grinned cheekily. "Guess it was important, hehehehe." He turned to the rest of the room. The only robots left were the one Santo was strangling…and the one sneaking up on Surge. "Oh, shit! Noriko!" He grew another rod and was about to break it off to throw it straight at its head, but then he saw another large figure behind it raising what looked like a gun behind it.

The blue haired girl didn't hear him, though. She was too focused on the fight and another matter. "I swear to god, Keller, if you leave David alone for one second I will…aahhh!" An explosion coming from behind her made Noriko instinctively bring her hands behind her head, to protect it. And everyone in the room to turn in her direction.

Naruto got a better look at the new robot now. It was much bigger than the ones they had been fighting till that moment, and all blue. Also, the gun it held was still smoking from the blast he just shot at the reject. The blonde blinked and then smiled. "Hey, I guess Forge sent some…"

"Take it!"

"Eh?! Hey! What the hell are you guys doing?!"

"What does it look like to you?! Taking out the big robot!" Noriko replied, before charging in as well.

"Idiot! Didn't you see?! That thing shot down the robot that was sneaking up you!" Naruto ran towards the others, trying to stop them.

**"Error. Protocol Conflict."**

"W-What?" David was the first one to react. The others didn't hear Naruto's warning. And then the former mutant heard the words from the blue robot fairly well.

**"Protocol error: Self-preservation."**

"It's not fighting us… It said 'Protect'. Nori! Nori, stop!"

**"Error. Protocol conflict."** It seemed that no one heard David either. Especially Cessily, who just kept on stabbing the robot with her morphed arms. And Naruto didn't like the blue bolts coming from the robot's body. They seemed to be getting deadlier by the second. The ninja just accelerated.

**"Error. Protocol conflict. Programming error. Shutting down. Reboot."**

"Cess?!" Julian was getting really worried for his teammate.

"Cessily, Get out of there!" Just as David said that, Forge appeared, walking out of an elevator. And he paled when he heard his robot say the word 'Reboot'.

"No…no! Stop! Stop attacking it! Nori, get everyone away from that machine!" Forge tried to warn them, but he feared it was too late.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" It was too late. The energy had suddenly become harmful, its first victim being Cessily who still hadn't pulled her arms out of its body.

"Cess!" Rockslide ran to her and tried to pull her away… "Uhh!" But he couldn't even touch her, his hand burning just by approaching her body.

"Cessily, no!" Said Julian. Forge just kept on urging them to get away. "Ger her out of there!"

"Aaaaargh!"

Laura had jumped in to help her friend from getting killed by the electricity, as it would hemorrhage her brain and make seize and spaz out. She cut off her arms, grabbed the metallic girl and kept away to safety with the others.

**"Rebooting."** While the more emotional mutants helped Cess, Forge and the others just kept on staring at the now damaged robot. Forge with horror. **"Repairs in progress. Protocol error. Error. Foreign programming detected. Error. Foreign substance corrupting physical system."** He had just seen some pink among all the blue light. **"Error. Foreign programming error. Rebooting."**

"Cess, are you..."

"I'm…I'm okay." She had gotten a grip of herself, and started to reform her hands. Naruto ran up to them to check up on his friend. 'Thank Kami...' He turned to Surge and slapped her upside the head in disappointment and anger at what she did a bit ago.

"Ouch!" Noriko held her head. "What the hell?!"

"That's my line to say in situations! That machine didn't attack you! What the hell made you to attack it?! You analyze the situation before making a move dammit!" Naruto berated his co-leader for the stupid decision, though granted he himself had done the same thing, several times in the past. David however had more pressing concerns...mainly the robot looking like it's about to blow a circuit or something.

"Foreign programming?" He asked.

"You couldn't have known…" Forge replied, observing the appearance of his creation and its voice slowly changing. "Nimrod came to me for repairs, but I transferred his A.I. in another body, an Anti-Sentinel unit I created for the institute. My programming overwrote Nimrod's, but this…this is bad."

_**"Reconfiguring hardware to software specifications. Reset LCD matrix. Commencing."**_ It was like it was changing its skin. It turned blue to bright pink. And in a flash of light, it was complete. Nimrod was back once again, ready to kill mutants again…and its eyes immediately focused on those around him. _**"This unit is now online. Mutants detected. Target: Forge. Target: New X-Men. Solution in progress**_."

Nimrod had closed its fists and was holding its bended arms close to its body, and it was glowing more than usual.

_**"Termination commences in 3… 2…"**_

"What the hell is going on?!" Noriko said. She didn't like that.

_**"1…"**_

"Did I ever mention that I now hate the color pink...?" Naruto spoke again. And then the blast that originated from the sentinel's body destroying half of the building in a massive explosion.

* * *

-The Institute; Cerebra-

* * *

Valerie knew that they wouldn't find the runaway students with normal means. And so, that left her with no other option but to have the Cuckoo's help her locate them via Cerebra.

"You really shouldn't be in here, Dr. Cooper. Your brain is in terrible danger." Celeste said to the officer of the O*N*E. The woman just ignored the girl and stayed with them.

"I'll take my chances. Did you find them?" She asked Mindee the one wearing Cerebra's helmet and scanning the planet for them.

"I can hear them…they're in Texas." That had been the easy part, but…reading their thoughts was another thing. She focused. "Their thoughts are so chaotic… They're being attacked." She focused her mind more so to discover what they were facing through the difficulty of the thoughts. "I don't understand…what they're saying…" She had to focus on something else. Like, a single word being in the thoughts of everyone, a common word… "A name…" She knew it was a name before she even heard the full word. Then, her eyes widened. "Nimrod. I have to tell Miss Frost."

* * *

-The X-Men's Blackbird; 72 Minutes from Dallas-

* * *

"Oh, dear God." Her eyes widened. She was left speechless for a second. Cyclops noticed it.

"Did the girls find them?" He asked.

"The children are with Forge, Scott. They're defending him from Nimrod." No one could see it due to his visor, but Scott's own eyes widened. In that simple facial motion, one could read surprise, guilt and shame all at the same time.

"No…" It was the only word that came out of his mouth.

"Because we didn't listen to them…" Emma closed her eyes and lowered her head, her thoughts similar to Scott's ones. "They're all going to die." Now they saw they importance of listening to kids warnings and theories, especially if they came from uber powered ninja's.

* * *

-The Remains of Forge's Home-

* * *

The kids and Forge were once again sheltered inside Naruto's Goudama. The damn thing was impervious to everything thrown at it. They really had a lot to thank for the ninja's skills, though they really should have paid attention to what he was saying before...yeah, you get the point.

_**"Reacquiring targets...error, cannot locate mutants...analyzing unknown energy...no chronal archive located, cannot properly analyze object. Taking countermeasures against known mutants within vicinity."**_ Odd...it couldn't locate the proper energy signature within its archives, nor did it have any record of the one being that was with the mutants, nevertheless it prepared in accordance to what it had in front of it.

The kids luckily had light within the black sphere from Naruto's body. It was majestic and bad ass at the same time with the markings and his eyes, but he kept it until they could come up with a plan.

Forge however, was rather intrigued by the boy...he hadn't seen him that much, save for back at the funeral, but he heard that Nimrod had counted 6 mutants, and not 7...he knew that David had lost his powers back on M-Day, so who, or rather, what was this kid exactly?

"Is everyone ok?" Nori asked her teammates.

"My nose itches..." Santo had to rub the crap out of it, despite being in a life and death situation...he seemed to do a lot of things like that as it would seem.

Laura interjected after checking up on Forge, she heard the death machine's actions outside the sphere. "The machine is cutting a path to our position."

"Nimrod...you have to run...you have to...please...just go. Run..." Forge had taken a bit of the blast, mainly the concussive force and not the energy itself luckily before the Goudama shielded them from the blast.

"And he has a concussion." Finished up her analysis of the situation. Was there nothing she was an expert on?

"Nimrod will kill you, like it killed Ororo. It'll go to the Institute...infect the O*N*E Sentinels, like it did mine...it will kill everyone. The students, the 198, the X-Men...every last mutant eradicated." Forge pleaded with the kids to get out of here as fast as they could to savor what bit few moments of life they had left...but he wasn't sure about the new kid glowing in front of them.

"Then we have to destroy it." Nori made her decision then. They couldn't let it get out to the school.

David on the other hand was a little too caught up with what Forge said, and their current predicament. "We can't. I mean the X-Men couldn't...there's no way we can..."

Naruto decide to make himself be noticed "AHEM! Bad ass ninja here with a lotta power, and eats douchebags like this for breakfast! We can kick this things ass!" He turned to Forge for any answers on how to beat the damn thing. "Hey, you managed to make this guy or something right? It got any weaknesses we can use against it?"

Forge looked at the boy in slight shock that he thought they could destroy Nimrod, but decided to tell them anyway. "Nimrod updated the anti-sentinel with its own hardware. It essentially re-created itself. It's indestructible...self-repairing...unstoppable. We have to..." He was nailing things off that just seemed to make the situation worse, but he paused momentarily as he thought of one...just one thing that they could turn to their advantage."...wait a minute. Not everything inside the robot is Nimrod. The time device."

"The what?" Surge was a little confused the way he had put it.

"If we overload the time device inside Nimrod, it would detonate taking him down from the inside out." It was the one thing that could probably make Nimrods existence collapse on itself.

Surge spoke up immediately knowing that she was the one that could easily do it. "I can do that."

"No! It's too dangerous." David spoke up thinking the plan too dangerous.

"I..."

"Don't you understand?! You'd have to get through Nimrod's armor, expose the device and keep it exposed while you attack." But then again, they forgot about poor ol' Naruto...really, why?

"Helllooo! I can use my Lightning Style with Nori's own electricity doubling up the attack power. Easy. As far as keeping it open, Laura and Cess can do that. I can have my Susanoo arm cover Laura when she makes the opening, while Cess sneaks up behind him and keeps him open. Though the big guy will probably know what's gonna happen next, so Julian and Sooraya can keep him from moving while we do our thing. Santo, you need to keep that thing from taking anyone out, you're the major muscle next to me."

Santo decided to ask a question, and a rather smart one too...odd. "Couldn't you do all that stuff yourself? I mean, you're badass ninja guy dude."

"I could, but this isn't about me, this is about working together as a team. It's something you guys need to get the hang of. We can do this. I'll create a few clones outside to buy us some time, but I don't know how long they'll get us since this is pretty much the first time I've gone up against a giant pink death machine."

Naruto created a few Shadow Clones outside his Goudama. And they charged right at Nimrod. It was confused. This was not a mutant, but nor did it register it as fully human. This was an unforeseen circumstance and it now needed to deal with this as its primary target. It could not impede its mission of exterminating the mutant race.

_**"Acquiring targets within sight; scanning...unknown energy, unknown entity attacking this unit. Declaration: Preparing standard countermeasures. Solution in progress."**_

Nimrod then concentrated a giant energy blast in his palm and shot it at the clones making them go 'poof' as they went down one by one. But one clone managed to get out of the blast by jumping over it and landed right on top of the robots head.

"Hey! Up here jackass!" He opened up his vest to reveal several explosive tags already lit and disintegrating into nothing, and right as they went off Nimrod tried to get him off, but still failed to avoid the damage done to him. _**"Warning! Massive damage received from unknown enemy. Initiating self-repair sequence. Repairing, 54% complete."**_ The black sphere then released the occupants inside and they got set into their positions ready to take down the sentinel.

Hellion got his telekinetics ready to stop Nimrod from moving as best he could with Dust already dissolving down into her sand to hold him down. Rockslide stood right next to Hellion in the event Nimrod made a go for his friend. Mercury snuck behind Nimrod and kept her distance ready to grab ahold of it to keep its chest exposed to Naruto and Surge. X-23 stood by next to them as Naruto created a Shadow Clone ready to throw her at the machine. Now they were ready.

"Now!" Naruto and Surge shouted in unison.

"RRRRAAAA!" Hellion managed to confine the machine for a bit with Dust's help. But Nimrod saw what they were trying to do.

_**"Target: Hellion. Telekinetic event in progress. Compensating."**_ Nimrod managed to send the TK back at Hellion and knocked him off balance to the ground.

"Julian!" Rockslide stood ready in case Nimrod tried to kill him, and just his rotten luck...it raised its palm charged with energy ready to blast them to oblivion. The memories of the bus attack came to his mind. He was innocent, stupefied, and in shock of what had happened that day. He wouldn't let another one of his friends die on his watch. "No. Not again...not again!"

He ran up to Nimrod as fast as he could in front of Hellion to prevent him from taking any damage in case he couldn't make it in time...he didn't. Nimrod completely obliterated Rockslide down to just rubble.

"SANTOOOO!" Cessily shouted out in terror and shock that another one of her friends was just killed in front of her eyes, but she inadvertently exposed her position to Nimrod. Dust was still trying to keep the machine distracted but it also soon turned its attention towards her..._**"Contact with primary target lost: Malfunction! Mutant designation: Dust obscuring sensors. Solution in progress."**_ Nimrod then released static particles into the air around him to force Dust to revert back to her human form and skidded across the rubble back to Cessily, who was still mourning her friends destruction. "Why? Why isn't he reforming?"

"Fucking machine!" Hellion had enough from the damn thing, he just wanted to rip it a new one right the fuck now.

"Keep it together guys! We have to stick with the plan!" Surge urged them to stay to course, whether or not they did didn't really show much from their facial expressions. Julian was pissed the fuck off, and Cessily was down on the ground on her knees trying to help Sooraya out.

"Then do the damn thing!" Julian yelled out.

_**"Warning! Massive telekinetic blast incoming. Preparing countermeasure."**_

As Nimrod was about to attack Hellion once again, he received not one, but two simultaneous attacks, one to the head, and one that tore his entire left arm off.

_**"ActivatSQUAAARKK! New target acquired. Alleyne, David. Human. Reclassify: Enemy combatant. Terminate. Initiating repair sequence...cannot repair left extension. Unknown energy disabling function of area, applying remaining energy to repair head unit."**_

Turns out David had ran back to the crashed Blackbird, despite the firemen on sight urging him to stay away, he managed to find the guns that Laura had brought with them. He didn't want to feel useless during the fight, so he had to do something at least, and shot him in the head. The other damage Nimrod had suffered, mainly his severed left arm, had been utterly removed from him when a small black sphere had been shot at it at high speed. Courtesy of one of Naruto's Goudama. Yeah those things were especially deadly to a lot of things.

"That won't stop him for long! Stick with the plan!" Naruto held a staff out in Nimrod's direction still next to Surge. "Alright go!"

The Naruto clone held X-23's feet up and threw her directly at Nimrod's front, ready to carve him up. Surge began to take her gauntlets off to unload all her power at the robot with Naruto. The entire city of Dallas lost its power as she absorbed every bit she could to try and get it up to Naruto's level of attack, or what she thought was at.

Dust tried to rally Cessily back to reality as the plan still went in motion. "Cessily! We need you! Right now or the plan will fail!" It seemed to snap her out of her mourning temporarily, and she readied herself for the opening Laura would make.

Laura began to carve into Nimrod, whom was still struggling for a bit against Julian's TK, but not for long. He blasted it back at him and focused on Laura. _**"Massive damage to exterior chassis; mutant designation: X-23; attack in progress. Implement force field for future attack. Initiate counter measures."**_ Naruto had placed the Susanoo's hand right in front of her to protect Laura, but the blast still managed to snag her arm, and it was badly wounded. Naruto had grabbed her with the Susanoo arm and brought her back to safety with him and Surge.

_**"Self-repair systems initiated on frontal epidermis. 14% complete. Proximity alert!"**_

"Monster! I won't let you hurt anyone else!" Cessily leapt in to hold Nimrods exposed chest cavity to Naruto and Surge, when they would make their attack. But Nimrod had expected the attack ever since she exposed herself earlier and counter accordingly. _**"Error. Self-repair systems are being inhibited by mutant designation: Mercury. Casting shockweb."**_ A web of its own energy then began to weave itself around Nimrod and attack Mercury.

"AAAAHHH! Guys! I can't...!"

"It's alright Cess we've got it! Julian get her out of there now!" Naruto shouted over to the semi-conscious boy.

"I..I got her..." Hellion managed to get up and grab Mercury from Nimrods body as Naruto and Surge made their move.

Naruto formed the 'Snake' sign for the Jutsu with her electricity. **"Lightning Style: False Darkness!"** Nori then funneled every bit of her power right at Nimrod with Naruto's Jutsu and it hit dead on in the center. The combo completely obliterated the back half of Nimrod and managed to damage the time device that it had grazed and it began to short circuit. The group began to look in astonishment at the emotionless robot, as it seemed to be...panicked?

_**"Alarm! Catastrophic systems destruction. Rear of unit completely damaged! Compensating...error! Chronal device unshielded. Error. Alarm! Chronal device damaged and overloading. Weapons systems non-responsive. Teleportation systems non-responsive. Physical form and mass fluctuating and heavily damaged. This unit is in Jeopardy! Catastrophe level in progress! Squaaaaaa...!"**_ Nimrod then began to crumble and disappear in a neon pink sphere along with debris from the destroyed building. Soon the dust cleared from the battle and everyone began to get their bearings on.

"Cess! Sooraya!" Julian called out to the girls.

"Nori...are you...?" David headed towards Nori was breathing heavily whilst kneeling down on the ground; none of her electricity was discharging from her hands, so it didn't seem like a good sign. "Don't touch me! I'm...I'm ok. I just...I just need a minute."

Forge was helping Sooraya up from her original position. After being blasted by. Nimrod, part of her skin hurt rather badly. "Please...I'm burning...it burns..."

Cessily went back to the crumbled up remains of Santo and tried to put him back together. She was crying her eyes out and spoke softly as she did so. "Santo...please come back. I'm sorry I was mean to you...please..." Julian found Cessily and hugged her to try and comfort her after seeing another one of their friends killed in front of them. "It's ok Cess. We're going to be ok."

But then another voice cut it...a voice they never thought that they'd hear again... "Yeah, don't cry Cess...I hate it when you cry." It was Santo's own gruff and rocky voice that cut in. He was alive and well...sort of well, you could say. You could just see his face. The two turned around in pure joy and relief that he was alive.

"Santo!"

"Ha!"

"What the hell...?! Uh, did anyone see my...my...you know, my body?" One couldn't really do much without one of course, so he tried to reform it, but was having a bit of trouble with it, so Jukian helped him out a bit. "Ow. Thanks man."

Naruto had decided to check up on Laura as her arm was in bad shape and wasn't healing like she should be. "Hey, are you alright after taking that?"

"I should be fine within a few hours. My healing factor is not responding like it should be. Perhaps at the mansion Dr McCoy can analyze what is the problem." She held her arm a bit to try and give it some comfort, while David made his way over to the two. "It may be due Nimrods tech, he knows how to get past mutations and deal out the most damage, but not your stuff Naruto. That explains why Stryker and Nimrod were both caught off guard with you. Technically speaking, you probably weren't supposed to come to this dimension."

Naruto thought about that for a second. He wasn't supposed to be here true, but he wanted to know if there was a way home. Rachel had come from another reality, and so did Nimrod, so there had to have been some way for him to get there. However, with even something like Nimrod not even knowing about him gave him a massive advantage for a while; all the X-Men's enemies could prepare for them accordingly and even the rest of his friends, but eventually that advantage would run its course after a while.

David turned his attention to Laura's arm and though about asking Naruto to heal her up, but then his mind went back to Josh. He was still in a comatose state, well sort of and Julian's own telekinetics were good, but when they're thrown against an enemy like Nimrod, they sucked. They needed to be better when they went up against another enemy like him. "Hey, I think I know how to kill three birds with one stone." He turned to Julian where he and Cess were celebrating Santo's comeback. "Hey Julian didn't Ms Frost put a few telepathic barriers around your power when you first came here?"

Julian turned and responded when he thought about it for a moment as he scratched his head in remembrance. "Uhhh, yeah I think she did, or I think I remember or something like that. Why?"

David then told him his idea. "Well to be honest, you need to get them up a bit, normally they're alright, but after this...we need them to get better in case we go up against someone on Nimrods level again. Try to contact Ms Frost and try to convince her to let the barriers up. And take Laura back with you to the school down into the med-bay to Josh's room. If he can heal Laura's arm up, then he may be able to go back to normal."

"I'll try...doubt she's gonna listen though."

_"Julian.."_

_"Ms Frost."_

_"I already know what you're about to say, and I can fully agree with you on your theory"_

_"But what if we do? What then? I'm not strong enough! I have to be stronger the next time crap. like this happens! I won't let my friends die! Not again!"_

There was silence for a moment, but then Emma spoke up again.

_"I'm opening up the part of your mind that controls your power. This may hurt."_

And just like that, his powers boosted to their maximum potential, and they all saw the massive surge of green telekinetic energy around Julian. He held his hand out to Laura to take her back to the school to Josh so he could heal her, and they flew off into the distance.

Though they were now relieved for the moment...but it just seemed like one thing after another for them. They turned around and Santo voiced up what's what. "Uh, guys?"

Turns out...Dallas police showed up on the scene with their weapons pulled out on them, thinking they were responsible for the destruction around them...though that was only part of the truth, the rest of that story belonged to Nimrod...buuut he was nowhere to be seen...oh well.

"Everybody freeze! Who...who the hell age you people?!"

Naruto spoke up for the rest of them. "We're X-Men, and we just kicked a killer robot's ass big time! Which is whyyyyy the whole place is like this..." He gestured with his hands around the place."...and besides the place really needed some redecorating 'tebayo." He smacked his face hard enough to leave a giant red mark on it.

Nori then cracked up laughing her ass off with tears rolling down her eyes. "Hahahahahaha, te-tebay-yo...hahahaha, that was hilarious!"

"DAAAMMMIIITT MOOOOOM!

"What's she laughing her ass off about?" Santo was completely confused about the situation.

"I wouldn't know since I'm not Japanese." Cessily informed her rocky friend.

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

The O*N*E Sentinel pilots were really incompetent...I mean really..._"Hey...something's coming up on the long-range scans...it's incoming...a superhuman. It's coming in at mach...that's not possible."_ Not impossible if you were a powerful telekinetic though like Julian. He really needed a far greater degree of control over his powers after this. He smashed through several layers of the school down into med-bay.

Meanwhile in Cerebra, the Cuckoos informed Valarie that Julian and Laura had just arrived via telekinetic travel, hence the commotion above them.

"Julian and Laura have returned."

"His increased powers have made him rather unstable in a way."

The director of the government group ran outside the room to make sure everyone was alright. "Cooper to Reyes, I need backup!"

Julian opened up the door to Josh's room with Laura behind him. "Hey, Josh we need you man!" He undid the restraints that kept him from convulsing and levitated him to them. "Heal her arm dammit!"

"...can't..." He wasn't thinking clearly at the moment.

"Look, I know you killed Stryker...but that's not you...you heal people, you're not a murderer."

"...can't..." He still didn't get it...but hey, that's what happens when you do stuff like he did.

"Just because you couldn't help the others, Laurie...that doesn't mean you can't help her...so come on Foley..." He grabbed his hand and guided it towards Laura's mangled arm, where Josh managed to touch it, and his original work began. Josh's skin instead started to go back to that bright golden skin that it once was. In a matter of seconds, Josh was back to full golden with small patches of black on him that seemed around his body.

"Are you ok?"

Laura moved and flexed her arm around to get a good feel for it and extended and retracted her claws for a bit. "Yes."

Julian then began to get a little dizzy from overusing his heightened powers and collapsed on the ground. "I-I knew you could save her...I knew..."

Then the door 'busted down' in a sense by O*N*E agents readying their guns at the kids. "DON'T YOU FREAKING MOVE!"

"Ok." Laura stood still with her hand at her side, while Josh looked completely confused at the whole situation.

* * *

-Elsewhere-

* * *

The Purifiers reorganized even after the failed attack and Stryker's fall. "Thank you for reclaiming our father's remains from the O*N*E."

"I owe the Reverend my life, and the lives of my family. If he hadn't stopped us from boarding that flight..." Their first course of action was retrieving the reverend's body, with the help of one rather special ally.

"You would have died in the crash."

"Yes. I never imagined when I pardoned him for the Madison Square Garden incident...that those monsters...that they would murder him in cold blood." The New York State Governor, yup. What a stupid bastard. Risking his entire life for a bunch stupid fanatics...not a very smart thing to do.

"Do not underestimate the power of Satan's children, Governor. And although Satan himself is now among his children and has taken our father from us, his mission continues...and we will not stop until God's world has been purified." All planned out by the new head of the Purifiers: Matthew Risman. Next order of business was taking care of the unfinished plan that the Reverend needed to complete to further the purification process. The attack on the Institute had two primary goals. One was hidden to the eyes of the demons. It involved one of them though, as they were essential in the plan.

Matthew was currently in vid-comm with the man who was doing that very job for them. "Now if you'll excuse me...our father's plans must be attended to."

_"Did you obtain the sample?"_

"No. The operation didn't go…as planned." Risman replied, observing the blonde doctor's face in the screen. "You'll need to extract it yourselves."

_"Not a problem. We have someone well suited for this kind of thing."_ Harkin then smiled and held out his left hand, rubbing together his fingers. Typical gesture to symbolize money. _"I assume the money has been transferred?"_

"Of course. Do not fail us. But be warned...the devil himself is among them." He spoke the second part using a tone he used for his underling Purifiers, but he really meant it to say that they wouldn't be paid if they didn't get the job done. The doctor let the further reassuring be handled by one of his best employees. The one he was going to give the 'retrieving' mission to.

_"Don't worry, Reverend. I've handled one of the most lethal mutants on the planet."_ The woman flexed her arm behind her back and grabbed the hilt of the weapon strapped on her back, a confident smile on her face. "I'll handle this one." Kimura. Profession assassin and former 'handler' of X-23. Yup, she's back...what a bitch...literally! Although now, she would be in for one hell of a fight within a few days.

As Risman cut the conference to a closing and the screen went black, another person showed up on screen. He wore a black visored helmet that covered his entire face and had a hood over the top of his head, and spoke directly to the scientist himself.

_"Hello there, Mr Harkin. I understand that you are currently on a job for Matthew Risman of the Purifiers at the moment, but I would like to place an order. They are I fact the same goal."_ He spoke with a voice that was masked by electronics and had a tone of authority and a business like quality added to it.

"Who are you, and how did you find out about the job?" He was rather curious as to how some random person found out about the job that they had been contacted for.

_"I am currently sending a list of modifications for you to use on my personal one. Along with a wire of money that I'm sure you will keep this separate from Risman's job."_

Harkin raised an eyebrow at the man, he just basically asked him to copy the same job he was just given, but put more effort into it due to some extra cash...it wasn't his style but..."...well then I assume you have the money arranged. We certainly are not a charity, and nor do we like to copy jobs for people, it's just unprofessional..."

_"Hm."_

Then a scientist came running through a nearby door and had a few papers in hand with him. "Uhh, Mr Harkin you just received some papers for you, sir." Harkin took the papers and read through them line by line and understood the modifications that had been sent to him...along with a healthy doubled sum of money that Risman had sent him. The man spoke over the video once more as he saw Harkin's eyebrows raise in astonishment. _"Half now, and half later until I receive my product. And I want it delivered to me before Risman receives his. I will take it from there."_

Harkin responded in a far more business like manner. "Alright then sir, we can certainly keep this separate and under the rug from Risman. Though I do have to ask, why exactly are you doing this? That and you never answered my first two questions." He was curious as to who the man behind the mask was and what were his intentions.

_"How I found out...I'm a man of many talents. As for why I am asking you of this...I guess you could say it's both on a whim...and a plan...for war...and for peace...either way you prefer is up to. As for my name...well" _He chuckled with a little humor._ "...I've gone by so many it becomes so tiresome to remember them all, so I guess for now I'll go by...Xorn..."_

* * *

-The Institute; O*N*E Interrogation Room-

* * *

"I told you everything we did! Seriously, we've sat here for the past hour and all I've done is answer the same damn questions over and over again." After the senior X-Men had arrived in Dallas to pick up the rest of the X-Kids they were taken into interrogation rooms by O*N*E agents wanting to know all the details behind the Nimrod battle. Naruto honestly was getting fed up with them...seriously...how many times do they have to ask the same damn questions every five minutes? They were only going to get the same answer and response.

Valarie Cooper didn't flinch at the ninja's words or temper, even though she knew that he could swat them all away like flies. But them she was a little surprised by his next comment.

"And you can tell you telepath friend to come on out! They're not gonna get very far, if anywhere at all inside here." He knocked on his head a couple of times, whilst turning to face the two-way mirror.

_"He's surprisingly difficult to read. I can't get anywhere at all. It may be best to just let him go Ms Cooper."_

She turned to the same mirror and nodded in agreement.

"Alright then you're good to go kid."

"Finally!" Naruto threw his hands up into the air in exasperation and thankfulness to Kami for ending this stupid crap.

As he got up to leave the door opened up to show someone entering the room. He recognized him from the picture he was looking at several hours earlier before he and his friends left to kill Nimrod. "Hey, I recognize you. You're that bald dude from that picture out in the hallway, the one with the kids in yellow spandex. But where's your wheelchair at? You get a new pair of nerves or something?" He raised his eyebrow in question at the man, who also had raised his eyebrows a bit, if only momentarily.

The man offered him a smile. "Yes, those were my first students actually, I have a feeling that you have already met Scott and Hank." Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, and the man caught on already to his facial expression. "Well, I'm sure Scott is easily recognizable with his visor, Hank on the other hand has been through several changes in his life. He wasn't always blue and furry." Naruto formed a perfect 'O' with his mouth and immediately understood the bald man's words. Then he decided to shoot a question at him. "Ok, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you were the dude trying to get in my head the whole time I was in that chair."

"Yes, it's odd...I've never encountered a mind quite like yours before my boy. I am curious though as to how you were able block me out."

Naruto thought about it for a moment, and decided to extend a hand in a friendly gesture. The man seemed to be friendly as well, especially if he taught Cyclops and Beast also, considering they too were in turn rather kind people as well. And he gave off a wise and knowledgeable vibe. But still...

"Well, before go into detail about that since I just met you, how 'bout we just start with names. I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, nice to meet ya." The older man had taken Naruto's hand and gave it a good shake as well.

"I am Professor Charles Francis Xavier, a pleasure to meet you Naruto."

* * *

_**Ta-da! The Nimrod arc is over. This chapter was rather shorter than my previous one's due to altering the fight up a bit from the canon of the comics. So, now Naruto has met Professor X, and unfortunately I wasn't able to find the material to show his return to Earth after 'The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire' arc from the 'Uncanny X-Men' series, oh well, I wanted to get this out of the way, as he will have a part to play in World War Hulk, and Messiah CompleX. The Masked Man has named himself Xorn, what do you guys think? I wanted to name him after a Marvel villain that many people would remember him for, primarily the murder of Jean Grey, and now 'Xorn' has gotten his hand into the Facilities' job, why do ya'll think? In time it shall be revealed. So make sure to head to my profile and vote on your favorite girl, and until next time when the Mercury Falling arc begins, read, favorite, follow, and review. No flames please as they will be deleted.**_


	10. Chapter 9: We Remember

_**Helloooo everyone, and here's another new chapter to the story. This chapter will be more of an interlude before Mercury Falling. This is the memorial service that was held for all of the fallen mutants of the past, and I thought that it would be good to write it in here, as it would help Naruto reflect on the people he too had lost back home and come to terms that as of now, he is officially stuck in the Marvel universe.**_

* * *

Chapter 9: We Remember…

* * *

-Kevin Ford-

* * *

"NO!"

Kevin woke up sweating after the nightmare again that he'd been having for weeks. He ran away from the school after he had hurt Laurie's arm, the girl he loved. He knew that the new guy, Naruto his name was if he remembered correctly had completely healed her arm, but he was afraid of what the teachers would do with him afterwards. He just felt that he couldn't trust hs friends anymore after overhearing them back in the Danger Cave.

"No, please God, no...make it stop..." The nightmares just continued when he came to District X aka Mutant Town after a few days. He had managed to find an old run down apartment that was vacant, the only other person that lived there with him was an older mutant woman who had asked him for a little bit of help while in the park one night.

"Every night, you have the same nightmare." The woman spoke up from her own mattress in the apartment.

"Yeah."

"Why do you not go back? You're not like us, the few that remain. You were one of his. One of Xavier's chosen. You had a place to live, friends, protection..." All true things indeed.

"No..." His mind went back to Laurie's arm. "They needed protection from me." That's what he kept telling himself at least.

-The Institute; Emma Frost's Office-

"Kevin doesn't want to come back, Cessily." She wanted to try and explain the situation to her student, but her feelings for the boy apparently override her common sense.

"Ms Frost, you can't just abandon him! Especially with everything that's happened...he shouldn't be alone." She wanted to try and explain to Emma that now is the time to stick together as they used to.

"I have people looking after him." A simple reply.

"How could you not tell us? How can you be so cold?" She was honestly hurt that her teacher, her role model would keep this a secret from them.

"What would you have me do, Cessily? Go after him? And when he refuses to return, then what? Force him to come back, against his will?"

"But David..."

"Kevin is not David." She put emphasis on the word not. "But I assure you, the moment Kevin wishes to return to the Institute, I will collect him personally."

"Ms Frost, please..."

"He needs time, Cessily."

"Does he know? About the students? Does he know about Laurie? I know now she's..."

"We will finish this discussion another time. Our guest is here."

* * *

-Josh's Room-

* * *

"It changes, but it's always there. Just moving across my body. I can feel it." Josh was still in his pajamas in his bed. Laurie had come to spend what time she and he would have left, as her mother would be taking her home after the attack. She didn't tell her about being dead and then revived. More than likely as she wouldn't believe a single thing about it. He mother felt that she would be safer at home rather than the Institute, but that didn't mean that they could still talk over the phone, in town, or over Skype on their laptops.

"Can you still...you know...?" She was worried that he would be tempted to use this new deadly power again. It just wasn't him.

"Kill? Yeah. But I don't want to. I know that this isn't what you'd want for me." But he would be forced to do so again in the future.

"But you were able to heal again."

"Something changed in me Laurie. When I killed Stryker...and then it changed again when I healed Laura. It was something Julian said of all people...I know I can be more. I can do more. Now I just have to learn to control it." And that would be words he would make sure to keep to.

"Guys?"

"Melodie..." Laurie turned to the door frame to see one of the Guthrie's hear for tonight's memorial service.

"Hi." It wasn't as enthusiastic as she usually says 'Hi' to her her friends.

* * *

-Outside-

* * *

Lucinda Guthrie had arrived after receiving word that her youngest son had been killed. Tonight a memorial service would be held and honor all of the loved the ones the X-Men and their friends had lost. "Three times I've been here. Each time, I never stayed long. So much has changed since Sam first came to the school. He told me what to expect. He didn't want me to come. But I had to be here, for Joshua...and for Sam and Paige, too."

Cyclops and Rogue led her through the military occupied grounds into the school, offering his apologies. "Paige is getting Sam now. Ma'am, I can't tell you how sorry we all are."

"We should have done more." Rogue had said. In all honesty, she felt the closest to the kids more so than even their teachers.

"Thank you both. Thank you for letting me...for letting me say good-bye." No words can describe the loss that she and her family had just suffered.

* * *

-Naruto &amp; Xavier-

* * *

"So you made the school and the X-Men to try and make thing better between humans and mutants...how am I doing so far?" Naruto counted with his fingers to keep count of how many things Xavier had done to try and create peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants.

"So far, so good."

"And you recruited these kids originally to train and teach them, and they've pretty much been keeping things going for a while and so on and so forth?"

"Yes."

"So I already saw what Cyke, and Furry Buddy do now, but what about the other three in the picture here?"

Xavier looked back at the picture and smiled at the nostalgia of the old days with his first students. "Bobby, the one covered in snow there, he tends to come and go every now and then, but ultimately he's remained the same throughout the years, but he has matured greatly though...something many of us didn't think possible, contrary to his usual hijinks. Warren, the one with the wings, has had a rough life to say the least. His father loved him, but he was a little ashamed to have mutant son, and he was the CEO of their company at the time. He tried to find a 'cure' per say, but failed in the end, but he has learned to deal with Warren's status as one of us and a mutant." He stopped for what seemed like an eternity as he looked to the girl.

Naruto caught on that something bad had happened to her and was now more curious than ever as to who she was. Finally Xavier spoke up, after shedding a small tear and wiping it away. "Jean was…many things. A teacher to everyone, even myself at times. A wonderful and immensely talented young woman that had succeeded me as headmaster for a time. She...died shortly after and, some things weren't the same afterwards." Naruto widened his eyes at what he just said. She was dead...and yet, he saw some sort of vision of her with him dancing out on the pond. She had to have been older than him, and yet, she looked like a teenager in the vision! What did it mean? He needed to get answers from her tonight, if she would want to talk with him at all about it. Xavier saw his eyes fixated on Jean specifically and asked a question of his own. "Are you alright. It looked like you've seen a ghost."

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and remembered the promise he made to her back in that white room. "It's nothing...it's nothing..." He decided to shift things into another direction. "So, where were you the last few weeks, I've never seen you around the place?" They began to walk down the halls once more after changing the subject up.

"I actually was here for a couple of days about a week ago, but I headed into space with a few other X-Men to help me make up a terrible mistake that I had made many years ago...one that I fear may never be fixed." Xavier looked down to the ground for a bit in thought about Vulcan and the others. Naruto then raised the question..."What mistake was that?"

Xavier stopped and stared out into the school ground, particularly to the graveyard that they had. He focused on three in particular. Sean Cassidy aka Banshee, Petra, and Susan Chan aka Sway. Three lives that had been lost because of his mistakes. Three lives that could still be among the living. Xavier preceded to tell Naruto that he had sent a team to rescue the X-Men on Krakoa, the living island.

Naruto was a little perplexed by that, but hey, who was he to say what was weird or not. He was the host to 10 powerful beings of chakra. Anyway, Xavier sent a team that Moira MacTaggert one his closest friends, had put together to save the original X-Men and one of the students was Vulcan, who was a brother of Cyclops. It was traumatizing for Cyclops knowing that he had a new found brother only to be killed after a brief meeting. In order to save Cyclops's life, Xavier wiped his memory of Vulcan and his team, and without the knowledge of them revealed to anyone else.

Naruto understood why Xavier did what he felt like he had to do, to spare Scott the pain and anguish of losing a brother he never knew he had. But Naruto didn't like what Xavier had done, and he felt that it was something that he never should have done. Scott had a right to know that he had another brother, and that he needed to mourn him along with the rest of his comrades. Xavier reminded him a bit of Old Man Sarutobi; he was wise and kind, but he made decisions both good and terribly bad that came back to haunt him. The Uchiha Massacre came to mind...but it was far worse than what Xavier had done.

Either way, the consequences were disastrous; Sasuke had become a murderer after killing Itachi and learning the truth from Obito, and Vulcan had apparently survived Krakoa, only to reawaken one week after Naruto arrived in this dimension on M-Day. He wished he could have been there to help the X-Men deal with Vulcan as he rampaged to get the truth of what happened to him and his teammates to the other X-Men, only to be 'betrayed' by both of his brothers, and fled to the Shi'ar Empire to exact his revenge on the former Emperor named D'ken, who kidnapped Scott's parents, killed his mother, and ripped Vulcan from her womb while she was still two months pregnant with him. It disgusted Naruto that a man could be that cruel to a woman, but then again…Hidan wouldn't give two shits who got killed as long as they could be sacrificed to his god, Jashin.

Cyclops was angered by Xavier's actions and ostracized him, but some of the students were more forgiving of his actions. Xavier still formed a new team to battle Vulcan who was slowly making his way to the Shi'ar Empire. While on the way, Xavier was kidnapped by a few Shi'ar people that they saved from another alien species called the Skrulls and was turned in to the imperial court for money. He filed the Skrulls away for later thoughts, as Xavier continued his story. He had recruited Nightcrawler, Warpath, Havok, Polaris, Darwin, and Rachel to help him in stopping Vulcan. _'So that's why she said it was sort of a family matter…'_ Naruto thought to himself.

"Wait, so how is it that you and half of the other X-Men made it back? What happened to Rachel and the others, I'd know if she came back to Earth, otherwise I would've sensed the seal I placed on her hand." Naruto wanted to know why she didn't come back to Earth with Xavier when she left with him.

"It was during Vulcan's wedding that they had come to rescue me when I was captured by the enemy and they were planning on killing me once it was over by throwing me into the M'Krann Crystal. An object that could potentially destroy the universe if in the wrong hands. But I had regained my telepathy as Darwin managed to pull me out before my existence collapsed on me and die, though he was badly wounded as a result. And Vulcan, in his rage…killed his own father in front of everyone as he stopped Vulcan as he was about to kill Lilandra, the woman who was once my wife, and Empress to the Shi'ar. She had teleported myself along with Darwin, James, Kurt and Hepzibah back to our ship and had it set back to Earth, crashing us back where we took off." He explained to Naruto.

Naruto had felt his heart sink a bit at the news, but he was also pissed off. He wanted to cave in Vulcan's face after hearing that he killed his father without any disregard to him being family, but he was sad to hear that his best friend…the only person that understood him the best of his situation, was now far out in deep space in another galaxy away for who knows how long. Xavier saw the boys sad expression on his face and was about to speak up, but Hank had come around the corner and looked like was searching for someone. And it seemed that he needed to speak with Charles immediately.

"Charles, you need to come see this right now. It's a message from Alex."

Naruto's eyes widened at that. Maybe he could have one last chat with Rachel before they were out of contact indefinitely for who knows how long. "Umm…is it alright if I tag along? Just to see if I could talk to Rachel one last time?"

"Of course, Naruto." Hank had said. _'Ah, young love…haha.'_

They made their way to the lab where a large computer screen was up on the wall. Hank punched up a few keys and brought up the video where Rachel, in a new outfit that Naruto noticed along with several other people were in some sort of cockpit from the looks of it. Naruto observed each of the others inside with her: a blonde guy with some light on his chest seated in what looked like the captain's chair; a woman with neon green hair, which was weird but also attractive in a way. A massive lizard/frog dude who looked pretty cool and something out of Star Trek, yeah he watched the new movies with the guy from Sherlock in it; they were awesome. Then a guy showing half of his body in a black suit with small lights dotting it and a long ponytail with no hair left on his head. And then finally there was a gut who had…bird feathers for hair?

"My God…when did this come in?" Xavier asked.

"Just a few minutes ago, and Alex isn't answering any of my replies." Hank wanted to see how they were doing emotionally. They just lost a great man…a father, a captain…

"_I hope you'll all understand, especially Scott and the Professor…but our job out here isn't done. So we're going to stay and fight to restore Lilandra to the throne. We're going to lead the resistance against Vulcan and Deathbird."_

That's when the screen changed to what Naruto assumed where the one's Alex was talking about. Vulcan was having a headpiece placed on his head in front of hundreds of people in a grand looking hall, and bowing to him as he rises from the throne. It must have been a crowing ceremony for the title of the Shi'ar Emperor.

"_Because we have to end this threat…he has to die. And X-Men don't kill, so I guess we aren't X-Men anymore. We're what my brother turned us into. If we succeed, we'll see you all again…hopefully soon. But if we fail, you have to send someone else to stop Vulcan…because he's crazy. He's a warped child…and if we fail, I truly believe the Shi'ar Armada will head for Earth."_

The dread of that permeated the room, odds are they wouldn't be able stop it seeing as they would need one of their own, but they were still years away from getting to that kind of technology and space travel. But Naruto would fight to the bitter end and he knew that odds are he probably could wipe it out…but at what cost is what he wondered. He wanted to go there, and help them fight against Vulcan, but it seemed someone had already anticipated his thoughts, and from his best friend no doubt, as she spoke up after Alex had finished giving his message to them.

"_Now, I have a feeling you're watching this right now Naruto, but no. Your place right now is at the Institute, I know that after hearing what Alex just said, you want to find a ship and get here yourself and smash skulls, break stuff and other things, and I have no doubt that you could shorten this whole ordeal after being in a war yourself. But they need you more than we do, don't worry about us right now, focus on the there and now. With the way things are back home, __our__ enemies are going to move against us if they haven't already. Don't worry, we won't fail. We'll win, and then we'll be back home, and we'll be hanging out again in no time. Until next time Naruto, take care."_ She had a stern face on while she talked to him through the message, and had a confident stance and tone that carried her words. At the end of the message, she smiled and threw a small kiss to him and waved goodbye. After that, the message cut out and the screen turned black.

Naruto wanted to say something, but the words just weren't coming too him…his best friend was about to go to war with a highly advanced alien race along with a handful of close allies, and a third of their forces. The odds didn't seem in their favor, and…no…they'd come out alive. He and the Allied Shinobi Forces managed to go up against imposing odds an won, he knew that Rachel and the others would win and that they'd return alive and well. "Good luck Rach, good luck."

* * *

-Central Park, New York City-

* * *

"What are we doing?" Kevin had asked his elderly friend.

"I just like to get out. I enjoy the city. When you're close to death like I am, you want to be out among the living." She took him out to also get him out of the apartment and have some fresh air. If anyone would have thought, it would have looked like a boy out with his grandmother like any other day.

"Don't say that."

"Should I lie to myself? Should I not embrace the truth? Kevin?" He saw some pigeons that were decaying by his own death touch. It was part of the nightmares he had been having.

"I'm sorry...I...I shouldn't be here." He didn't want to hurt or kill anyone else. The first time he discovered that he was a mutant and fond out his power...was when he had inadvertently killed his father a few years ago. He looked over to a young couple making out while leaning on a tree. They too were in a decaying state...it wasn't an easy sight to see, but it was all he saw.

"Is it hard Kevin? To see people like that? When you're not with the one you love?" His thoughts went back to Laurie...and...Josh...she loved Josh, and not him.

"No. It doesn't matter."

"Why?"

"Because I can't touch the people I love! I can't touch anyone!" It tore him apart at what he did to Laurie...and now he couldn't even fess up to her that he was truly sorry for what he did.

"I should be going." She stepped up and began to walk back to the apartment .

"No, please don't...I'm sorry. It's just...I miss all of them so much, but it doesn't matter. Even if I were with them...with her...I couldn't...can't..."

"Death is all around us. I've accepted this. Look, there." She referred to the police and coroners near an apartment that they were coming out of, carrying several bodies covered up by sheets in gurneys. "The humans have taken more lives. They blame a mutant, but it's humans." She went on with the stereotypes of humans blaming mutants of the past. "One day soon, they will come to take me."

"No, they won't." He grabbed her hand an pulled her back with him to the apartment for her safety. In the past few days the elderly woman had become his only source of socialization and friendship.

"You know the truth, but will not accept it. Have I ever told you about my gift, Kevin?"

He ignored her words and focused just on getting her away from the cops. "They won't hurt you. I promise."

Over at the crime scene, the police were discussing the details. "Just leave the body bags in there, Doc. You might wanna grab a Dustbuster, though."

"Are you serious? Again?" The coroner was just confounded by the state of the bodies,

"We got a witness this time. Won't be long now." They now had the culprit's face, now they just needed find out where they were.

* * *

-The Institute; Julian's Room-

* * *

He had been asleep for 34 hours...literally. After having his power's restraints released and boosts to their maximum potential, and Josh had volunteered to haul his ass back to his bed.

"Zznnnn...nnn...uh..." He was stirring a bit in his sleep. Laura apparently had snuck into his room for...whatever reason it was...there really wasn't a real way to tell what she was thinking. Other than listening in on what people say.

"...Sofia..." So that's what he was dreaming about...huh, makes sense given that they never really said goodbye to each other.

Aaaaannnnnndddd...Laura was outta there. Aaaaannnnnndddd...Julian was still sleepin' on, oblivious to the girl that very sneakily went in and out of his room.

* * *

-The Common Room-

* * *

Santo was bragging again about how great he he was and the recent story with Nimrod. "So Foley's gone all Zen and probably isn't coming back to the team. The team that took down Nimrod. Did I mention that? I'm not saying for sure, but there could be an opening. So...have either of you died and come back, like me? You guys an uber powerful ninja assassin dude?"

"Uhhh..." Vic couldn't really form the words to respond.

"Not really." While Hammil did on the other hand.

"Too bad. Now, Hammil...you've got the flame head, that's pretty cool. But what if we're in a dark room, doing stealth stuff? You'd blow it!"

"Well, one time in the Danger Room..."But then Santo turned to Vic and started talking to him, blatantly ignoring Hammil's words.

"And you, Vic...you've got the stealth, but what are you going to do in a fight against, oh I don't know, Nimrod?! Tongue him?"

He ignored Santo's little jab and instead reflected if with a question of his own. "What is it with you guys calling people by their last names? You never call me by my last name, or Naruto's...what gives?"

"Because your last name is 'Borkowski.' Lame! And Naruto's way too long to even say, am I right Qadir?" Plus Japanese names just weren't exactly easy to say. He turned to his friend for a little back up, but he didn't really get it.

"Cessily asked everyone to be nice to you for as long as possible. You are making it very difficult." She turned to the hallway where she saw Rogue walking with another woman older than her and talking with her. It peaked her curiosity a bit. "Who was that woman?"

"That's Lucinda Guthrie. Jay's mom." Sooraya sprung up from her seat and hurried to catch up with them to apologize to Jay's mother for not trying to save Jay. It tore her up that she could have done something to save him...but she didn't in the end.

"Sooraya! Don't...don't keep beating yourself up." He hated that she was blaming herself for something she didn't even do. He turned to Vic with some annoyance in his voice. "Way to go, lizard boy. You're out."

"What?!" What'd he say?

* * *

-Jay's Room-

* * *

Lucinda looked around her son's room and began to reminisce about the old days when he was still here, when he wasn't himself. "At first, he didn't want to come here. He wants to be with Julia, but I made him come. He wrote to me. He said that in time, the pain eased. It never went away, but it eased. He found friends." She looked at the picture of her son with his team that they took at the end of their first year at the school. "He began to live again." Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a voice coming from the doorway.

"Mrs. Guthrie?"

Rogue turned around to see who it was. "Dust?"

Sooraya took off the headpiece of her burqa so that Mrs Guthrie could see the sadness and guilt written on her face. She tried to speak but the words would not let themselves be said due to the pain. "I...I..."

"You must be Sooraya. My boy told me what a beautiful person you are." She spoke so calm and collectedly to the young student, she heard many things about Sooraya from her son. Sooraya soon broke down in tears and clung to Lucinda with sorrow. Rogue shed tears of her own at the sight. "Please forgive me!"

Lucinda hugged Sooraya as if she were one of her own, soothing the girls tears and sadness. "Oh, honey...it's ok...it's ok. There's nothing to forgive you for...this isn't your fault."

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

After the message from space, he began to explain to Xavier who he was and how he had gotten here from his world. It astonished Xavier quite a bit. Naruto reminded him of his first student Jean, there were many similarities between the two of them but there were a few differences. Either way, Xavier saw great potential as Naruto could become a game changer in many scenarios, and perhaps a true bridge between human and mutant, and coexistence a true reality between the species.

Naruto also had been shown Cerebra, the device that tracked mutants across the world and recruit X-Men and enroll Xavier's earlier students at the school, though now it was used primarily to locate missing mutants and for use in missions. When Xavier had used it, Naruto's eyes were wide with astonishment. But when he saw the true amount of mutants left, he was saddened by the sight, he imagined that before he came here there were millions of lights signifying mutants across the globe.

Xavier had told him that his twisted twin sister, Cassandra Nova had created advanced Sentinels and that she programmed them to wipe out the mutant nation of Genosha, the place he remembered the Ice Queen had talked about when she lost students there. 16 million mutants were wiped out, for no reason at all...Naruto wished that he could have been there to stop the genocide and stop her, perhaps had he arrived, earlier in this dimension, he could have also saved Jean, maybe even stop the events M-Day also, but he would never know.

However, his thoughts went back to the chakra signatures that he sensed two weeks ago, and he needed to find out who it was before they could cause trouble of they were an enemy. "Hey could Cerebra possibly track other types of people too?"

Xavier had responded to his question. "Yes, if tuned to those without the 'X' gene, others can also be tracked. But why do you ask?"

"About the time when I first came here...I felt a chakra signature, twice. I need to find out who this person is and how they got here and find out what they're doing." He was determined to get to the bottom of this.

Hank and Xavier's eyes widened in shock at the fact that he said that there was someone else with his type of energy running around their world, and with unknown motives. Hank spoke up after hearing his words, "I need to gather some of your data and see what we can do about tracking that signature." Hank left in a bit of a fast paced walk that carried urgency. Xavier came up from the chair and took of the Cerebra helmet connecting him to the rest of the world and asked a question of his own, "Are you sure no one else came through the rift with you when you fell?" That may have given one explanation to the signature.

But Naruto shook his head, "No. I know for a fact my Shadow Clone threw Kakashi-Sensei, Sakura and Obito back through the rift that led to our home, and if Sasuke got trapped here too, then I think that the Doc also would've have found him, or I would've encountered Sasuke by now, so it can't be him." He knew that Sasuke would've searched him out and found him by now since more than likely he wouldn't want to stay here in this world. Xavier thought on what he said and it was a rationale explanation.

Hank had made his way to his lab and brought up the computer's log data and history to see if anyone had been poking around where they shouldn't. He brought up the data and saw that only he had been in it, so the data was secure...but that didn't mean he was going to take a chance of someone eventually sneaking in and stealing it, so he grabbed what he needed to help track the signature and destroyed the data.

So many things and problems could have been accomplished and solved with it in the future, but events at the moment would put that on hold for who knows how long. If the advancements that he made were somehow released as of now, there would be no telling on how much destruction would be caused if in the wrong hands. That and he would need Naruto's input and help in dealing with them in order to minimize any and all risk posed in dealing with the chakra, if he would even allow it that is.

Hank returned to Cerebra with the data and the three of them began to work on modifying Cerebra to track any chakra signature outside of Naruto's own.

* * *

-Kevin-

* * *

"NO!" Kevin woke up in a cold sweat. The nightmares were getting worse by the day. He sat up and curled into a ball against the wall, folding his arms up in front of his face to hide the horror from the elderly woman.

The woman apparently was watching him thrash around in his sleep, and asked him about it, whilst stating the obvious. "The dream again. What is it that scares you so? That you've done something horrible? Or that you like it?"

"I told you what happens when I use my powers. What happens to people...I see it happening all the time, whether I'm asleep or awake. What would God let something like me exist?" He muffled loudly behind his arms, almost on the boarder of crying his eyes out. He did his best to hold the tears in.

"Your gift is a blessing." The woman tried to male him see a good side to his ability, but was fruitless with his next response.

"It's a curse!" He put the emphasis on curse primarily as he yelled out.

She hadn't moved an inch from her position in the bed, and began to lecture him on accepting that he was who he was, otherwise...how be happy and live with himself. "Poor, poor Kevin. You're such a good, pure soul. For weeks, you've helped me, taken care of me. Talked to me. But your hatred of yourself is holding you back. Death is part of the natural world. Your gift was meant to be used. Only when you accept yourself will you achieve your heart's desire."

"Never. I'll never use my powers again." Not after he hurt Laurie on M-Day, he just couldn't bear the thought of him accidently hurting or even killing another one of his friends. It's why he ran away to 'protect' them in his eyes.

"Not even to save a life? Would you kill to save my life? Would you take the life of the man who killed your friends?"

"What did you say?"That caught his attention. The woman began to talk some more, but he otherwise just more than likely had filtered her words in one ear and out the other.

"We are not so different, Kevin. Did I ever tell you about my gift? To be one with death. To sense souls as they are freed. I felt your friends...Xavier's new children. I felt them die. They were so young. So pure and innocent. So many children, so painfully taken. They suffered, Kevin. Such pain. Killed by humans." He got up out of the apartment and ran outside to the nearest phone booth to make confirm what the woman just said to him.

* * *

-Cessily and Laurie's Room-

* * *

"So...is your mom really having you go back?" Cessily asked her roommate, or soon-to-be ex-roommate after tonight.

"Yeah. Mom doesn't want me up here after what's been happening, even though I tried my best to convince her that I should stay." She had her things packed and ready to go save for tonight to head home with her mom, as she too would be staying at the Institute for tonight's memorial service. Suddenly the room's phone rang up with no caller ID prompting the girls to ignore it, but it kept ringing for a while before Cessily finally had enough and picked up the line.

"Hello?" But she was soon shocked for words as she heard the voice on the other end.

_"Is it true?!" _Kevin's voice had the tones of desperation and sorrow in it as he spoke over the line.

"Ohmigod...Kevin." She was honestly speechless...she hadn't heard his voice in what seemed like forever. Laurie's eyes shot open in surprise as well, ever since Naruto healed her hand, she hadn't had a chance to tell him that it wasn't his fault for what happened to her arm.

_"Is it true?! Tell me Cessily!"_ He was getting impatient due to the lack of an answer from his former teammate.

"Put him on speaker." Cessily hit the button and Kevin's voice soon became enraged. _"Where is Laurie?!"_

"Kevin! It's alright, I'm here with Cessily! But please...come home..." Laurie was beginning to cry with Cessily at the pain they all had endured in the last few days.

_"Who all died? Who?!"_ Now he knew that at least she was alive and alright...yeeeeaaah, if only he knew the truth...

They were hesitant at first, just remembering the night of the bus attack, so Cessily spoke up. "Everyone that lost their powers...except David..." She then broke down in tears with Laurie trying to hold back hers still and holding Cessily by her arms trying to comfort her roommate. "...oh, God, Kevin...please...please just come home...we can talk when..."

_"I can't! I can't risk hurting or killing anyone again! Not after I hurt Laurie!"_ He yelled out. Cessily tried one last time to convince him to come home. "Please...just come home. Don't...Kevin...please...don't do this..." But he hung up on her the next minute, leaving the girls to their pain.

* * *

-Kevin's Apartment-

* * *

The elderly woman was sleeping soundly as SWAT units busted down the door with their weapons raised and ready to fire at a moments notice. Two of them had the door while two others held their guns at the woman, but they had their guard down and the woman reached out and grabbed their arms, draining the life from them.

It seemed to empower her as her eyes turned blood red and, giving her a vampiric appearance...but it was a given to who she truly was. The officers on the door opened fire on her and shot her several times in the chest, slamming her against the wall, seemingly killing her. Kevin heard the gunshots and ran upstairs to see his friend dead, slumped up against the wall. "NOOOOO!" He grabbed of anger without his gloves and killed the officers, withering them away to dusty, mummified husks.

Kevin slumped to his knees and was staring at his hands in horror that he had used his powers again...he had taken lives out of anger, something he was taught back at the Institute. "What have I done?" His hand shook as he spoke.

But then a new, unfamiliar voice came over the room, with a sympathetic, and yet commanding tone. "You've become who you were meant to be Wither. You are death. Pure and simple."

It was the elderly woman...or so he thought, judging by the dust obscuring his vision. "I don't...I don't understand...they killed you." Then her appearance changed drastically as the dust settled. "But I am immortal. We are the same, Wither. We are killers." Now in place of the elderly woman, there was now a young raven haired woman in a dominatrix outfit, smiling down on him over the corpses. She was Selene: Former Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, and longtime enemy of the X-Men.

She began to pick him up by his chin with her fingers up to head level and spoke to him in a seducing manner. "Now that you have embraced the truth, I can give you everything you have ever wanted..." She got closer to his face and was very close to kissing him. "This is what you want, Wither. This is what you were meant to be. No more fear. No more running. All you have to do is say 'yes,' and I will be your queen."

Then they kissed for several minutes and Kevin gave her his answer. "Yes." He was now a part of her new and growing Inner Circle.

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Night had fallen and the memorial service was about to commence, but before it did, Lucinda Guthrie said a last few words to her son's friends. "When Sam was young, the world hated special boys like him. When he discovered he was different than other kids, he was scared...so was I. But then Charles Xavier brought him to this school. Here my son blossomed and became a man. This place gave Sam and my other children something I thought they'd never have...hope."

Naruto took in her words, and saw that she was a very open and accepting woman, who had come to terms with the lifestyle that her children had taken up. As she said the last word, a new image popped into his head...it was him in what looked like an ANBU outfit with his mask off and he was hugging a little red-head girl, in a mini X-Uniform who was crying tears of sadness, but also...happiness? As it seemed with her ever twisting mouth trying to form words. He snapped out of it immediately and turned his attention back to Lucinda.

"Joshua loved it here. He loved ea h and every one of you. You are his family. Horrible things have happened...I've lost my son. Melodie lost her gift. But I still believe. I believe in the dream that Charles Xavier told me when I brought my first child here. The X-Men are the light in the darkness. They represent hope, hope for a better world. And while I worry for Sam and Paige, I could never tell them to stop fighting for that dream. Because inside this place, that dream is already real...and you are the ones who will make it a reality outside of these walls. My son believed that and I do too. We miss you Joshua, and love you with all of our hearts."

Everyone was dressed in black the evening of the service. The men in suits, and the women in dresses, while Naruto was in his Shinobi funeral attire from the funeral from the previous days. They each held a candle in a cone and carried them out with them to the graveyard, where Kitty began her speech. "We remember John Proudstar and Sean Cassidy. We remember Jean Grey. We remember Sarah Vale, we remember Mark Sheppard, Andrea Marguiles, Floyd Carter, Callie Betto. We remember Brian Cruz. We remember Sammy Pare and Jeffery Garret. We remember Esme and Sophie Cuckoo. We remember..."

Kitty began to choke up at the next two names, but she managed to recompose herself. "…we remember Doug Ramsey. And Illyana Rasputin. I miss you. We remember Joshua 'Jay' Guthrie."

Emma put a hand on Cessily's arm to comfort her, and she soon sensed Ms Marvel in the area, and looked at the corner of her eye and saw that she was in the back of the crowd. Most likely here once again as a friend and not an Avenger in business, here to honor those lost before, on, and after M-Day.

"We remember all the mutants lost on M-Day, and the students lost to the violence in the days thereafter. We gather together for support, to never be alone. To remember those we loved. To respect their memories, and to keep them alive in out hearts. Let them be at peace. We will never forget you."

Kitty's speech hit Naruto, as he thought back to all of those that died in his world to protect him, and the Leaf Village from the Akatsuki. _'Mom...Dad...Pervy Sage...Asuma-Sensei...Neji...Old Man Sarutobi...Nagato...Konan...Itachi...I'll remember each and every one you. Even you Obito in your final moments, you found yourself once again. After loosing sight of your path, and you tried to redeem yourself and save me...to be honest, I never thought I'd say these words but...thank you...for trying to do the right thing in the end.'_

After the service ended, Naruto retired to his room for the night and ate Ramen in his bed while watching some TV. Once he finished up he sealed the empty cartons in a scroll for disposal later and decided to try and talk to Jean, as he knew her now. He got into his position and began meditating into the white room, and soon found himself in there as he opened up his eyes. He looked around to see that she was waiting for him, and she had a somewhat worried look on her face..._'This doesn't seem good.'_

"Indeed." She responded. Of course, she was a telepath and technically she could read his every thought in here. So he asked what was nagging him the back of his head.

"Ok, so...I've been having these visions or something lately in the last few days, and I have no clue how they're coming to me, this has never happened to me before. Do you have any idea?" He hoped that she may have some sort of answer, and thankfully he got one.

"It may be due to your intrusion into here: The White Hot Room. Here, one can view events of the future and see the effects of the choices one makes and their consequences. I have seen many timelines, events, and futures from here." She turned and waved her right hand and many 'screens' appeared out of nowhere in front of them and showed multiple people that looked similar and different within different events taking place.

Naruto was in awe of what he was seeing, it was similar to what he saw back in Kaguya's dimension before he fell down the tear that brought him here. "But wait, why can I only see a few things, my visions have been around some girl I don't even know, and you too. I saw some sort of vision where you were alive and you were like, my age or something." That's what he wanted to know.

Jean's eyes widened at that last sentence, she honestly had no answer to it all, it felt like she had lost a bit of her omnipotence ever since she ascended into the White Hot Room when the Phoenix came to her once again, and then scattered itself prompting her to put it back together and return one day to her original plane of existence. "I...don't know...it's odd, but perhaps some of this place latched onto you, when you first came here. And recently...I have lost some of the visions, in which they may now come to you I stead. How often, I cannot say for sure, but, do not try to change them, for the future that you see, may never come to be."

Naruto took in her words and nodded in acceptance of what was of his situation. And so, he decided to ask more on Jean herself for the rest of the night. Jean smiled gladly and motioned for him to sit down in a chair adjacent from another that had been placed facing front towards the other, and so Jean's story began.

* * *

_**And done! Yeah, it's an interlude chapter and not part of Mercury Falling arc, but I felt like I had to do this chapter for whatever reason. But anyway, hope you guys like this chapter as I had Naruto and Xavier talk with one another and see how they view each other. Make sure to swing by my profile and vote on your favorite girl for him to be paired with, and continue to read, favorite, follow and review, no flames please as they will be deleted. See you guys next time :)**_

_**One thing I would like to address is when you guys post a review, saying "Great" or "Awesome Chapter" is cool and all, but let me know what you specifically liked and disliked about the chapter, giving me just that doesn't help me to become a better writer, so please in future reviews, don'tbe afraid to say more, thanx guys :)**_


	11. Chapter 10: Mercury Falling Part 1

_**Hello everyone and welcome back! This chapter will begin the Mercury Falling arc with Narut and X-23 tracking down their kidnapped friend Mercury from the Facility, X-23's creators. Hope you guys enjoy it :) ! Also, I own nothing.  
**_

* * *

Chapter 10: Mercury Falling Part 1

* * *

-The Danger Room-

* * *

Hank and Julian were down in the Danger Room trying to get a better grasp of Julian's increased abilities. How you might ask...?

"Pick it up."

"You're kidding, right?" He just couldn't believe something so simple was supposed to help him.

"Not at all. Unless you don't think you can do it." Hank tried a little sarcasm.

"Funny." Julian retorted with little sarcasm.

"Ever since Emma took the 'safeties' so to speak, off your telekinesis, you seem to be having some trouble controlling it. The fine motor control, if you will."

"That's ridiculous." He really didn't want to do this exercise.

"So you put Rockslide through the wall on purpose the other day?" A rhetorical question if anything.

"He was annoying me." Oldest answer in the book.

"And you meant for your bed to go out the window?" Another rhetorical question.

"It was annoying me, too." Really, was that all he had to say in his defense, at least he could've come up with something clever.

"Then you'll have no problem simply picking up this paperclip." Yes ladies and gentlemen, a paper clip was how they were testing his skills. It was a simple exercise really...for people that didn't have enhanced telekinesis.

Julian tried to deny that he wasn't alright after going up against Nimrod. "There's nothing wrong with me."

"I'm so very glad to hear that. Pick up the paperclip." Hank was a patient man, so he could wait all day if he wanted to, but he knew Julian didn't and it was getting close to lunch.

"I don't need this." Julian's stomach growled a bit and he face palmed.

"Now would be a good time."

"Yeah Julian. Didn't you say you wanted to get stronger?" Naruto had popped up out of nowhere and made him jump up from his sitting position on the floor.

"Gaah! Dude, knock much? And aren't you supposed to be doing something or what?" He started to rub his legs since they fell asleep after sitting for so long and arguing about his powers with Beast.

Naruto looked around the Danger Room in a sarcastic manner and looked back at Julian. "Oh, yeah. Boss wanted me to come down here to try out some of his other, less lethal Jutsu's down here while he's talkin' with Cyke. And why would I knock? I thought the Danger Room was open to everyone here?" He gave a sly smile and said the last part in a minor mocking tone to get on Julian's nerves a bit.

"Oh, yeah if you think it's so easy, then you pick it up." He paused a bit before thinking a bit more on what he said. "Wait! Never mind. You'd just be smartass about it."

"Hehehe..." The NaruClone laughed at what he just said. He would be smartass and pick it up with his bare hand. But his faced turned serious after he finished up and spoke. "Hey, if this is what Furry Buddy says you gotta do get stronger, then you gotta do it. I had to cut a leaf in half with my bare hand without actually using my hands to tear it. It had to be clean and precise like a knife cut, and that wasn't easy, I only had minimum help from Kakashi-Sensei and Captain Yamato. You've got an entire school of teachers and friends to help you with this."

_'Furry Buddy? Well...I've been called other things, so this really isn't anything.'_ Hank thought to himself. He gestured again to the paperclip that Julian was supposed to be moving.

Julian looked down to it and sighed in defeat. "Fine then." He lifted his hand up to the paperclip and it began to hover for a bit with his signature green aura surround it.

"Not bad." The NaruClone said crossing his arms.

Julian smirked at his success. "Ha! See! You want me to make it dance for you?" The paperclip was now up at face level and glowing with the color green.

"Sure." Hank said, though he knew he had to have the boy learn that he needed more control over his powers, so if anything this would just blow up in his face...or the ground in this scenario. The telekinetic energy then shot down and around itself making a 10ft hole in the Danger Room. NaruClone made a split decision to try and use his Preta Path, and like a charm it worked indeed. He managed to absorb some of the energy leaving less damage done to the floor.

Once everything settled down, the trio peered down below into the whole in the ground. Hank decided to give Julian the news. "Yes, well done Mr Keller. You obviously have total control over your powers." He was sarcastic.

"Yeah. Told you."

"I suspect that while your power levels did come back down, they came back down to a higher level. You're more powerful than before. It's going to take time for you to adjust. But until Marvel Girl returns for some tutoring, I suggest you practice. Preferably away from the others."

"Practice. Right. No problem, Professor." Julian was depressed now more than ever. He had to practice...more so than usual. It sucked honestly.

"Well, now that I know that Boss and I can absorb other types of energy with the Preta Path, I better let 'em know. Oh, and get better or you'll suck Julian! Haha!" The NaruClone dispelled in a puff of smoke with a mocking salute.

"Hey!" Julian barked back at the site of the clone.

Up above in the observation room, Laura was observing Julian the whole time as he was in the Danger Room. She had been observing him the whole time ever since he had brought her back to the institute after the Nimrod battle. She couldn't really describe what she was feeling every time she got around him, but it was...odd and she wanted to know more about it. But she heard a voice behind her that wasn't exactly her favorite. "Tell me...is that a genuine emotion? Or just something your master programmed into you?"

"Get out of my head." She turned in surprise at what Frost said.

"I'm not in it. I don't have to be." She came up to Laura's side and just stood right next to her, she just looked down into the Danger Room and kept on talking. "You've been following Julian around like a puppy ever since you returned from Dallas."

"Please stop." She didn't like talking about her emotions, much less with her.

"You think I hate you, but I don't. In many ways, we are the same." It was hard to believe, with all the psychological crap the ice queen was using against her. "I, too, have done horrible things in my life. I've hurt good people. Destroyed minds." Laura clenched her fist in frustration, how could she know what she had done?

"Killed those I once loved…my own sister. I understand evil and death, just as you do. But the difference between us is that my actions were by my own choice." Emma turned to face Laura. "You don't have a choice. With a single drop of that chemical…that 'trigger'…you lose control to your masters and kill whomever they choose."

Laura's head dipped down in depression. She knew it was true if and when they came for her, they would use it to get her back and force her to kill again. Emma came closer and spoke out loud into her ear. "If you care for Julian, then you will leave him. Leave this school now, before it's too late." She hoped that would be enough. Play on the emotions to force her out, but as luck would have it, someone else heard her berate Laura the entire time without her noticing. "How can you say that?! She saved us! All of us!" Cessily had heard it all.

Emma turned around and wanted to explain..."Cessily..."...but her student basically had shut her up with the next few sentences. "No! You abandon Kevin, you humiliate Julian, and now you want to Laura to leave?! What's the matter with you?! She nearly died saving our lives...she would have, if not for Naruto! This is how you treat her?" Laura saw this as her que to leave the room. She wanted to be alone for the time being.

Emma tried to justify her actions, though it was in vain. "There're things you don't know, Cessily...I'm doing this protect you."

"I don't care!" Cessily then made her way to follow Laura to try and talk with her, but she turned around one last time to say something to her teacher. "I've found out more than enough about how you 'protect' your students Ms Frost." And with that, she slammed the door hard, leaving Frost with guilt. "Dammit."

* * *

-Elsewhere; Location Unknown-

* * *

"Next is Sooraya Qadir, codename Dust. This one transforms into sand, and can project herself with enough velocity to flay the skin off you. Concussion grenades and liquid are both effective against her." Several squads belonging to the Facility were huddled around the holographic table showing the potential enemies they would encounter on their capture mission they were hired to do. "Again, these are the mutants the target is most likely to be with at any given time. Each of them is under constant surveillance, and we've tapped into those systems for real-time tracking."

He switched over to a large rock like being. "Santo Vaccaro, codename Rockslide. Superhuman strength, nearly invulnerable skin density, and can use his appendages like projectiles, firing them with level five force. Go for the eyes and mouth."

He swapped over to a new hologram before addressing the men again and the subjects. "The O*N*E files on all of those subjects have been recently updated. The threat levels on each of them have been raised."

The hologram finally mapped itself. "Julian Keller, codename Hellion. Telekinetic. Threat level has been upped to severe, and reports are coming in that his levels have vastly increased. If you're engaging him, try sonics or attempt to blind."

He swapped over to the next hologram. "Joshua Foley, codename Elixir. Previously a healer, he recently broadened the use of his power and can now use offensively. He can kill you with a touch. I recommend you don't let him touch you."

He then swapped over to another hologram. "Noriko Ashida, cod and Surge. Can absorb and emit electricity, and move at heightened speeds. Your uniforms should provide you a minimum of protection in the short term. Just shoot her. Her gauntlets regulate her power, and are also vulnerable to attack. She's apparently co-squad leader alongside this one..."

He punched up a hologram of Naruto in his uniform and with a few other pictures of his Susanoo and Wood Dragon. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, codename Ronin. From what O*N*E has on him, he has heightened speed &amp; strength, advanced healing abilities that go beyond Elixir's, and can create duplicate's similar to Jamie Madrox of X-Factor Investigations, and not take any backlash upon reabsorption. However, the Purifiers have also said that he has agility, reflexes, and hand-to-hand combat training above that of any ninja of the Hand or even Elektra Natchios. He can create a massive Dragon made out of Wood, so avoid that period. He carries a cleaver the size of his own body, and he's very proficient with it. And now onto the title that they've given him 'The Devil Himself' from what Risman had seen him use, a massive ethereal being that is is multi-armed, completely impenetrable, and pitch black in color. So we can assume that O*N*E fully knows what he can do, and are keeping it a secret hence why his file barely has anything in it. Avoid him at all costs, flee on site if possible."

It looked like Naruto finally got a similar warrant status just like his dad, even if it wasn't on a wanted poster and wasn't by an actual nation of course. The troops felt it best if push came to shove, to let Kimura handle the brat. "O*N*E analysis suggests that he, Surge, Hellion and the human David Alleyne are the primary targets for chain of command." He swapped to the final hologram and spoke as it started to form. "Once a window presents itself, we take the target and get out. Neither the X-Men nor the O*N*E Sentinels are to be engaged, if at all possible. You've seen the files...I don't need to remind you how dangerous these mutants can be." The final hologram formed all the way, and they all knew who she was, and what she could do. The man only said a few words. "Excessive Force is highly recommended." Nuff said...

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

"Laura! Laura wait!" Cessily was running to try and catch up with Laura after talking down to her teacher. She wanted to try and keep Laura here because not only did she save their lives with the opening she made on Nimrod, she wanted to get to know the girl better, she hadn't been very social since coming to the school.

Laura just kept on marching through the hallway to the front door out of the building and almost shoved a few other students out of her way. "Move."

"Ok!"

"We're moving!"

"Laura, will you wait up?!" Cessily finally caught up with her and had stretched her arm out to try and prevent her from taking a step further, luckily it worked for whatever reason whether she didn't want to hurt her or out of respect that she defended her from Frost, she didn't know. "Stop! Look...I heard how horrible Ms Frost was, but you have to know that we don't want you to leave..."

Laura deflected her words with her own. "It doesn't matter. She's right." She hoped Cessily would drop the subject before she found out the real reason behind her behavior, but she didn't. "No, she's not! All those things she said...I didn't mean to overhear, I was just coming to check on..." It was starting to click in her head. "...she said...she was saying that..." Then it clicked... "Ohmigod...you like Julian."

Laura blushed ever so slightly if one noticed it very carefully, but she pushed it back away as she was getting uncomfortable. "I do not wish to talk about this."

"You do! Oh, Laura...we should...we should..." She really wasn't this excited to talk to anyone before for some reason. "...I don't know, talk. We need to talk."

Laura really didn't want to shove Cessily out of the way, she was being nice to her. "Please move."

Cessily was giddy right now, it had been a while before she could actually be a girl like her old self before her mutation kicked in. "Let's go get a coffee! In town! Seriously, this will be so good."

Santo was trying to find something to do, seriously...it suuuuucked right now since they came back from Dallas, and O*N*E was watching them a lot closer since then. Soooo, when he overheard Cessily talking with the clone chick to go and get some coffee, that caught his attention. "Whoa, can we do that now? I thought we couldn't leave! Is that new? I want to go, too!"

Cessily turned around and looked at him as if he had just grown two heads. "No!" She then grabbed Laura's arm and led them to their rooms so they could sneak out of the mansion. "Come on, Laura!" Laura was genuinely surprised that someone wanted to spend time with her alone, with the look she sported.

Santo decided to play out a little sarcastic sadness. "Awww. Hulk sad."

* * *

-Cyclops Office-

* * *

"So let me get this straight...you're not pissed off with us? We're not in trouble?" Naruto was confused in all honesty and was scratching his head at Slim's words.

Nori decided to react a little sarcastically, with some faux shock to boot at Cyclops' words. "Wait...stop. Is there any way we can record this or something? Maybe get it in writing "

Cyclops brushed it off as her usual sarcasm, but wanted to explain that they still disobeyed the rules. "Don't push it Nori. The O*N*E is furious with you. What happened in Dallas made national news, and made everyone's job here harder." Naruto knew that odds are, there would be more paper work and bitching. He knew what went down with things of the like back home when he did something Granny Tsunade or Kakashi-Sensei said not to. "But you were right." Naruto also knew that these things usually came after the lecture. Even though they did go against orders, they were commended for acting and doing good in the end. And sometimes, that's what had mattered. "I should have been honest with you from the beginning. We suspected that Nimrod had returned based on what Emma saw of Stryker's gauntlet, and, of course, the message Jay left for us."

Both students were flabbergasted at what he just said. Nori spoke up first. "You knew?"

"We suspected. But we didn't broadcast it to the O*N*E."

Naruto theorized that it would have infected the Sentinels at the mansion since they were the only things that they had worth a damn. "And you left anyway, even though the pink death machine easily could have taken over the bigger ones outside?"

Cyclops knew what it was capable of, so he knew he had to find it immediately. "When you came to me, I already had Cable tracking it. Angel and Husk were searching for it, Storm had Wakadan agents searching for it...the mansion was defended. But one of the reasons I didn't tell you was that if you thought it was out there, you'd go after it. And of course, that's exactly what happened. But I was wrong to leave. Had I been here, you may not have put your lives in danger. Even though one of you could have easily defeated it." He referred to Naruto of course, nothing much was needed to da about his strength. "And believe it or not, keeping you out of danger is part of my job."

Cyclops took a breather after that little speech, but he wasn't finished yet. "Another reason why, is because we didn't want Naruto's more flashy powers exposed so easily to the public. I know that even though the rest of the X-Men and your classmates already know you and your people's history and abilities, but there are many people out in this world that kill to be able to grab power like that." Naruto knew that many people killed for more power in his world, and that this one wasn't any different, but things would become worse if chakra became widespread to this world. "Recently Tony Stark and Reed Richards had created a clone of Thor..." He turned to Naruto to give an explanation seeing the boy's confusion on his face. "...he's basically a God of Thunder, nowhere near Kaguya's level or her sons, but still someone out of mythology and it killed another hero. That, and he and SHIELD, another government agency, had started up the Thunderbolts program. A program that basically gives villains the right to work for SHIELD and they turn a blind eye to what they do in the field. Not a very ideal thing to begin with. So you can understand the concern we had, and O*N*E higher ups have kept things quiet after you story."

Naruto took in what Cyclops said and had to agree with him on the points they made. They were all very valid as this world was different from his own. Cyclops spoke back up again. "The world gets more dangerous every day, I don't need to tell you that. You're just kids...you shouldn't have to deal with these things." He looked to Naruto for a bit. "I know that this is the norm for your people Naruto, but this world is different from your own as you already know. You shouldn't have to suffer the losses you have. But...I want you to know that you did ab amazing thing. You stood your ground against an opponent that even the X-Men never defeated. And according to Forge, he and your teammates are alive thanks to the two of you. Even Wolverine was impressed when he heard about it. And that's saying something, literally."

A confident smile graced both leaders of the New X-Men. "I disagree with Emma's method of choosing your squad. But I agree with her choice of its leaders." And the awesome news just kept on comin'. "You'll train with the X-Men, you'll report to us, but the squad belongs to both of you. If you want to add members, just let us know. We're going to look to your team to help keep the other students safe." Nori was in a bit of disbelief at Cyclops' words. "Yeah...ok..." Naruto decided to bring up the subject of the chakra signature to the both of them, not really knowing if either of them had been told. "Well, now that that's out of the way, there's something I need to tell you both, since I doubt you guys know or anything just yet..."

* * *

-Elsewhere; Facility Safe House; Location Unknown-

* * *

Kimura was in the middle of a vid-chat with Dr Harkins concerning the development of the order placed by the Purifiers and the 'special' order made by the strange man calling himself Xorn. _"Testing on the creature is proceeding. We're on schedule for Risman's order, and Xorn's is ahead of schedule, though luckily we had several extra hands to help with the modifications he sent us, along with the half he paid up front to us. We should be good, assuming the success of your mission."_

"It will be a success. What did you find for the live test?"

_"Apparently it calls itself 'Mammomax.' It should be more than sufficient."_ The screen changed to a location with a massive man-elephant looking mutant being herded with shock rods and being towed with steel cables into an arena of sorts. A Facility agent interrupted the vid-chat due to some interesting news. "Kimura."

"You'll excuse me, Dr Harkins." Kimura turned to the agent.

"The target is on the move. You're not going to believe this, but she's leaving the Institute, with only one other mutant with her."

A sadistic smirk came across her face at the news. "Well, now...looks like today is our lucky day." Just like Christmas, heh. If she knew what she would be getting into...

* * *

-The Institute's Lower Levels-

* * *

"Perhaps tomorrow you can concentrate on destroying a different wing of the mansion." They had just finished in the Danger Room, and to say the least...Julian was terrible with his control of his abilities.

"You're hysterical, doc." He was itching his ass off from all the due that came of McCoy, he noticed Josh walking around the corner of the hallway. "Hey, Foley. What's up?"

"Hey, Julian. I just wanted to talk to Dr McCoy."

Julian decided that he had enough scratching his back, so he just took his shirt off and started to shake it out. "Better you than me. I'm hitting the showers...someone shed all over me."

"It's a sign of affection...now can I help you, Mr Foley?"

"I want to learn everything there is to know about human anatomy, biology, and physiology. Everything." He needed to know this stuff ever since he discovered he could house his power offensively and it could kill with. He didn't want to accidentally over do it and give someone an autoimmune disease or several malignant tumors throughout their bodies.

Hank was caught off guard at what he just said. "Oh. Well...good?"

* * *

-X-23 and Mercury-

* * *

"Why do you order a drink? You do not need to drink or eat."

"How do you know?" Cessily blinked at that, how much exactly did she know about? She shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't matter. I just like to hold it. Makes me feel human." Saying that, she took hold of the cup, enjoying its warmth in her hands. "Makes people feel more comfortable around me. It may not look like it, but I'm one of the least human students here."

"None of us are human." Replied Laura.

"I know…" The girl took her time to observe the coffee in the cup, watching it move and shift. Much like her own liquidy metallic form. "But I like to look human. Do human things."

Now that that little thing was out of the way, she wanted to get to the one of the reasons she dragged Laura out of the mansion. "Julian knows...and I guess you do, now. But we don't know anything about you. You don't talk much." up to see her expression, but she didn't really have one on so to speak.

Laura didn't say anything at her words. Cessily looked back down to her coffee and started to talk again. "Right. Well, I guess we know that you could kill us all if you wanted to. Well, except for ninja boy, I mean that guy's a power house. That's what Logan said." She then looked back up to Laura's face. "But you saved my life. Sure, you had to cut off my hands to do it. But i was looking to lose a few pounds, anyway. I just wanted to thank you."

"You're welcome." She wasn't used to this sort of thing, not since she was with her cousin and aunt in San Fransisco.

Cessily then went on to the next reason, and Laura already looked uncomfortable and knew what she was going to say. "Do you like Julian?"

"Yes. He has helped me before he in a fight." She put her hands below the table and began to cut herself. It was her way of keeping her mind on something else other than what was in front of her, it was her 'coping mechanism'. "No, I mean do you _like him_, like him?"

She was perplexed by what Cessily just said. "Like him, like him?"

"Do you have a crush in him?"

"I do not want to talk about this."

"Laura, it's ok if you do. I understand, believe me. I know how it is to like someone who doesn't necessarily like you back."

Laura disliked talking about her feelings. "No, I..." But something else caught her attention. She got up from her seat in a flash, looking around worriedly.

"Laura?" Asked Cessily, noticing her sudden uneasiness.

"Get out." She said. Cessily blinked.

"What? Laura, I didn't mean to upset you, I was just…" She was interrupted by Laura pushing her towards the door.

"Get out of here! Now!" The clawed mutant then shifted her attention to the other occupants of the café. "All of you! Run!"

"Laura, what's wrong?!" Cessily was sincerely confused. What had gotten into the girl all of a sudden.

"You have to go!" Her voice was deadly serious. She wasn't joking. "They're not here for you, they're here for me. They're here to take me ba..."

Laura's speech was interrupted by an explosion. The same explosion that destroyed the café in which they had been having a nice friendly conversation, for a change, in her life.

"Uhhh…" The explosion had destroyed the building and probably killed everyone but her and Laura. The clawed mutant had her healing factor and she…well, she couldn't be killed that easily. "Laura…oh, God…" She looked around. Everything was on fire. And she saw bodies among the wreckage. "What happened?" Then, she saw them. Shadows in the flames, walking among them with guns They were holding rifles… "Laura?" The claws came out.

"Get out of here, Cessily!" Laura emerged from the flames with all her claws out, and started doing what she did better. Fighting, killing. Fighting those men who had blown out that place, taking two of the down on the first somersault. "Run!" Cessily was petrified, at first. She stared and stared… Till she saw more soldiers coming to attack Laura.

"No!" She acted. She extended her body and her hands and slapped a soldier into unconsciousness. She then shifted till she was back to back with the black-haired girl. "We have to get out of here! We have to get back to the institute!"

"Get out of here!" Laura was adamant in not involving Cessily in the fight, though.

"What?!" Cessily was adamant on staying behind and help, instead. "I'm not going to just leave you here!" Then, someone shot Laura with another kind of weapon. Bullets were almost useless against her. She regenerated holes almost immediately. Crossbow bolts were a bit more of a pain to pull out.

"Uhn!"

"Laura!" Two crossbows hit her in the left arm and in the right shoulder. Cessily was immediately by her side.

"Well, look at this… Out for a little girl-talk?" The two girl's gaze moved to the newest voice among the rubble. A woman wielding the crossbow that had just been used to shot at Laura and another weapon. Some kind of rifle. And that mocking smile on her face. "Hi, X. Miss me?"

"Run, Cessily." She was repeating herself a lot, it seemed. Laura then began to talk to the newest arrive. Her old 'caretaker'. "She has nothing to do with this, Kimura."

"Where did you learn such nobility? I don't remember you taking that class at the facility." Kimura's reply was just keeping her mocking smile and adding her words to the mix. "But arrogance always was your problem, wasn't it, clone?" Then, the woman moved the other weapon from her shoulder and aimed. "We didn't come for you." She shot. And indeed, they hadn't come for her. The woman hadn't aimed the shot at her. The shocking dart hit Cessily square in the chest.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The dart wasn't to kill her. It had the effect of making her unfocused…making her brain seize and disobey her minds' commands.

"Cessily!" Laura was about to help her, to remove that dart, but then another bolt hit her square in her throat. "Hhk!"

"Get Kincaid and load her into the containment unit. I'll handle the clone." Kimura gave the order. But it seemed like one of her collaborators wanted a raise or something. While his co-workers walked to Cessily and surrounded her, this one walked to Laura with a smirk on his face, pointing his rifle right at her head.

"You're dead." In reply, Laura pulled out the bolt from her throat and stuck it in his own throat. She then grabbed the rifle, since he really didn't need it anymore, and started firing at the Facility agents who were surrounding Cessily. But before she could take out all of them, Kimura simply stepped in the way of the fire and took all the rounds like she was being splashed with water.

"Stop fucking around!" She said a bit more forcefully to her subordinates. She then turned to Laura again, smiling. "I said get the girl in the van!" Laura threw away the rifle and unsheathed her claws, charging Kimura head on. "Stupid girl!" Kimura side-stepped and threw her attacker to the ground real hard. "After what you did in San Francisco, you're lucky I don't reach through your skull and pull out your brain." She then simply sat on top of Laura, blocking her to the ground. Laura reacted, slashing fiercely at her. But all that managed to do was rip away parts of her clothing.

"Oh, come on! How many times do you have to try that before you give it up?" Laura appeared either deaf or dumb in her eyes. She just kept on slashing at her chest and abdomen. Kimura just laughed. "You're going to have to do better than that."

"So are you." Huh? What kind of answer is that? That's when she noticed what the clone was talking about…she removed the ring from one of the grenades she kept attached to her belt.

"You little…" Yeah an explosion of multiple grenades were sure to make someone pissed off, and do a considerable amount of damage. But due to the closeness, Laura was damaged as well and thrown away. But the total damage was the same. While Laura had the healing factor, Kimura didn't, even if she was more resistant to damage. Laura was back on her feet in a flash, staring at Kimura, who was wincing in pain for the burns. "Uuuuh…I hate you, clone."

"Kimura, we're green!" Said one of her subordinates. And she suddenly received a radio communication from the doctor.

_"Kimura, do you have Kincaid?"_

"She's on board…" She replied by pressing an invisible button near her right cheek. "I'm dealing with X-23…"

_"Forget her. We need the girl here now."_ The emphasis on 'now' made her understand that games were over. She fell back to the van and jumped on to the passenger side.

"Kimura!" Laura was back to her feet, but she wasn't fast enough to stop the from going away.

"Another time, X. See you soon." Kimura kept mocking her, she simply waved while they drove off. Laura gritted her teeth in pain and anger.

"KIMURA!"

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Santo, Anole and Alani were watching TV, just flipping through channels for something, at least interesting or new as compared to something that was another rerun of a show that they got bored of, but then Santo stopped on the news at the sight of some teenagers are dressed in tights.

_"...including several members of the Young Avengers still fighting under the provisions of the Superhuman Registration Act..."_

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up! The Young Avengers?! Who the hell are they?!" Sanro was caught way the hell off guard from what he just saw on the 6 o'clock news, giving the nation a status report of the ongoing Super Hero civil war. He honestly had no idea there were any at all.

"Are you kidding?" Alani looked at him like he grew two heads.

"All right, see if you can follow..." Anole decided to play smartass with the dumbass. "They're like the Avengers..but young. And two of them are..." Just as he was about to say that two of them were guys and were gay just like him, Santo interrupted the reptilian student.

"Stop! This is a joke, right? Young Avengers? When did that happen?"

Julian overheard the conversation and hoped that his teammate would know where Cessily was. He was meaning to talk to her and see how she was doing after last night when he heard that Kevin had called and refused to come back to the mansion. He knew how much she cared about him and was worried about her. "Santo, have you seen Cessily around?"

And yet he seemed to ignore the question and was more focused on the TV's bulletin. "Holy crap, Julian...did you know there were young freaking Avengers running around?!"

He played along. "Yeah, so?" He was a little more focused on something else.

"So?! Dude...we should go beat them up! Like, for no reason!" This was clearly his jock self talking. "It'll be awesome!" He just needed to know who he had to go up against to make it seem like he was a total badass. "Who's their strong guy?"

"Hulkling." Anole responded.

Julian wanted to get back on topic. "Guys? Cessily?"

No answer from Santo..."What kind of name is 'Hulkling'? Lame!" Aaaaannd..."Gee, I don't know 'Rockslide'." No answer from Vic...greaaat. Luckily Alani, actually spoke up and had an answer for Julian. "I saw her with X-23 before. I think they were going to town for coffee. That was a while ago, though. They looked a little tense."

Julian was at least glad to get something. He turned around heading towards Sooraya and Laura's room to see if they came back and hadn't left the room. "Thanks." Then he mentioned Santo. "Thanks for nothing, Santo."

Because everyone else was oblivious to him as Vic and Alani decided to pick on Rockslide. "Hey, Alani, do you think Santo could beat Hulkling in a fight?"

"No way! Hulkling would kill him!"

"Hey! I'm right here!"

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

After the meeting with Cyclops and Surge, they both knew and now everyone else needed to know that there was another chakra user running around the world. It was extremely risky and dangerous considering that Naruto had no idea who and what their goal was, and that they were able to mask their signature rather well from him.

Now he was currently recovering from another terrible bowel movement after drinking some expired milk. "Ugghhh...man I really need to check the expiration date on things." He rubbed his stomach in pity at the pain it endured. **"You should've learned by now idiot...jeez now I gotta work to get that crap out of your system, and...wait...kit, you smell that?"** Naruto was walking down the hallway and went past Laura and Sooraya's room if he remembered correctly. He soon caught the scent of what Kurama was talking about...blood, and he wasn't liking it. He decided to knock on the door to see if anyone was in the and if they needed help.

"Hello? Is anyone in there? Hello?"

As soon as he opened the door, he saw that it was Laura sweating and had blood on her and she was dressed in what looked like something similar to Leaf ANBU outfits, whilst lacking armor. She turned and unsheathed her claws at him, but quickly put them away at seeing who it was.

Naruto asked the obvious. "Laura?! What the hell happened to you?"

"Cessily's gone. But I'll get her back." Laura slung a bag over her shoulder and began to walk back to the window, but Naruto stopped her by grabbing her shoulder and spinning her around to face him. He wanted answers. "What do you mean? Get her back? Where is she? Who took Cessily?"

He got a simple answer whilst Laura giving him a scowl of annoyance. "They took her. The ones who made me, took her. And the longer you stand here, the harder it'll be for me to track her."

Naruto knew that's how things worked with kidnappings, so now he needed to help find her. He wasn't about to let Laura go off on her own, she was going to get herself killed, so he told her..."Then I'm going with you."

Laura would've said no, but then she remembered who she was talking to. "Ok." She sensed that he wasn't asking to come with her, he was telling her that he was going to come regardless of what she said.

The two stealth experts snuck out the window and past the Sentinels out to search for where ever Cessily was.

* * *

-The Facility R &amp; D Labs; Location, Unknown-

* * *

Kimura's team arrived finally arrived at the local labs where they were creating the Purifiers' and Xorn's weapons.

"Get her out and transported to building three." Harkins ordered to the agents under him.

"I didn't miss anything, did I?" Kimura wanted to see some major blood baths every now and then, and from what Harkins and the others were working on, it was gonna be glorious.

"The first test is about to begin. I held off because I know how much you like to watch."

Cessily banged on the glass tube trying to get their attention or at least try to get out, but both attempts were in failure. "Let me out! Who are you people? What do you want?"

Kimura smirked at the young mutants attempt to break free of the container ."She's got a lot of spirit."

"Ms Kincaid was a cheerleader."

"Well, that just makes this all the better, doesn't it." She enjoyed the screams of the terrified.

"I hope you don't mind if I enjoy the test myself." Harkins and Kimura turned in surprise to where the voice came from. The saw a man standing in the way of the window down into the testing pit. He wore a black long-sleeve top that covered his neck and chin, a pair of black gloves, a pair of dark-colored pants, along with strange sandals and white stirrups. On his waist, he wore a thick black belt with armored pads hanging from it. He had some sort of device on his left arm that appeared to be grafted to his arm almost. He turned and showed his face to be masked by a black visor that covered the majority of his head, revealing himself to be their new client: Xorn.

Harkins wanted to know how he knew where they were. "How did you know where to find the lab housing the weapons? And how did you get in?" Granted even though he was a paying customer, a _very well paying_ customer, they kept all of the lab locations a secret.

"How I knew where? I simply know...how I got in...well, all it required were a series of steps much like how you take, but simply to fast for your eyes to see." Xorn turned his attention back to the pit with Mammomax. "Well? Let's get this show on the road, shall we?" He didn't sound impatient, rather intrigued and sly implying that he had outwitted the Facility agents and the good doctor. Harkins turned his attention back to Kimura, hoping for answer from her as to how he got in, but she just shrugged with a confused look on her face. She also was rather confounded by how Xorn had gotten in without anyone noticing.

Meanwhile Mammomax was trying to act all tough and big while throwing death threats at the people above in the observation room.

"Do you here me?! You're all dead! The Brotherhood will come for me! Exodus will come and then you're dead!"

"Open the door." Harkins had instructed the operator, he then turned his attention to Xorn. "This test is actually yours Mr Xorn, and we tailored it to the genetic specifications that you had sent us." Xorn had stayed silent and watched on as the mutant below would be used as the subject.

Behind Mammomax, a door slowly opened up to reveal a strange looking creature hiding in the shadows. "Let me out!"

"Hhhssssss..." It purred a bit after the hissing, and it caught Mammomax's attention. "What the..." He was about to finish it, but then he barely had time to register what he saw...a massive creature twice his own size. It had pitch black eyes with no iris not any bit of white, and had a rather smooth looking domed head that was elongated and had several spiky protrusions near the rear, and had teeth sharp and ready to tear into flesh as they were drooling with hunger and on the sides were four mandibles with teeth of their own. It ran towards him on its hind legs and reached out with its forearms pointing towards the mutant. "SCRREEEEEE!"

"NYYYAAAAAARRGH!" It rammed him into the wall and began to tear him limb from limb. Harkins and Kimura smiled at the results of the work, while Xorn himself stayed silent and watched the living weapon used to its fullest effect. He wanted to see that he getting his money's worth on the weapon, as it would help him in the future...in many ways.

* * *

-New York City Docks-

* * *

The door knocking was getting rather annoying at this point and the guys didn't want their game interrupted as it was being done so. "Go see who it is." The boss ordered the guy closest to the door to check it out.

He made his over to the door with a gun in hand, just in case it was someone unwanted, per say...yeah he was gonna get that answer real soon..."If anyone looks at my cards, I'm gonna shoot you. Can I shoot 'em Vic?"

"Sure, Johnny."

"HAHAHA!"

"Who is it?!"...a shame he wouldn't be alive to know the answer. The next thing he knew before he landed dead on the ground, was that he had peered out the eye glass in the door to see a teenage girl, who then shoved her claws right into his forehead.

"Johnny! Kill the bastard!" The henchmen then flipped the poker table over in case of needing some cover and began to unload the guns into the door and it soon became riddled with bullet holes. They opened the door to see who it was. "It's some girl!"

"Shoot her!" He knew exactly who it was and pulled out his cell trying to get ahold of the man he knew more than likely was involved. He ran out the backdoor and had a driver ready to go. "We gotta get the fuck out of here! Go!" The boys back inside didn't stand a chance as X-23 sliced them up to bits.

The boss got in his car and finally managed to get ahold of someone and motioned for the driver to take off..."Get me that Facility egghead! They sent their cleaner into my warehouse! I want her dead! I want all of them dead." But as soon as they drove off, they failed to notice a certain blonde ninja with a giant black ribcage surrounding him. "Boss...we got a fuckin' problem."

Naruto had his Susanoo ready to stop their escape just like he and Laura discussed. He formed the hand to grab the car and it rammed right into it. He picked it up and turned it upside down with the driver out cold from the crash and the boss in the back struggling to get out. "Uhhh...get out...got to get..." As he finally managed to crawl out and was about to make a run for it, Naruto had walks towards him and swatted the gun out of his hand and it skidded towards Laura who picked it up and primed it, ready to fire at a moments notice. "No!"

"Where are they?" Laura grabbed the boss and set him up on his knees to get the answers she needed from him. "Where is the Facility operating out of the east coast?! You have three seconds." She shoved the gun right into his face on his forehead with the barrel flush on his skull. He began to sweat bullets that even Naruto was impressed with. _'Ibiki sure would be proud to have her ver in Torture &amp; Interrogation, she really knows how to get someone singing.'_

"One."

"I don't know!"

"Two."

"I swear, I don't..."

"Three." And he finally caved.

"Cadillac Jones! On the east side! He knows! Please don't kill me, I don't know anything!"

"I believe you." Naruto then sensed what Laura was about to do next. And stepped in at the last second. She pulled the trigger, but was surprised that Naruto had intervened and kept the man alive, he grabbed her hand and aimed it to the sky. It confused her to be honest. "What the hell Laura?! Why did you try to kill him?! He was harmless!"

"Because he did not have any information." A simple, but twisted answer.

"That's no excuse for killing the bastard."

"Yes, it is. He works for the Facility. He deserves to die."

Naruto decided to try and explain the different reasons behind killing for a bit, as he didn't want to loose Cessily's trail. "Look, I understand that there are times were it's killed, or be-killed. I understand that there are some people that are too dangerous to be left alive in the world, and that sometimes the lives of your comrades takes more importance over the lives of your enemies. Granted I've killed people before, when I had no other choice at the time, but not for something like this. It makes us different from them, otherwise we're just like them, we kill for different reasons, the line blurs. You know?"

Laura took in what he said, and started to see why he wasn't big on killing, despite being in a society where killing someone was almost a normal thing, and no one would bat an eye at their death, unless they were dying for a good cause and were good people. Naruto placed his hand on Laura's shoulder to emphasize what he was trying to get through to her. "We'll find Cessily, but no killing unless we have no other choice. Got it. We'll shakedown your contacts, we'll get info...but no killing." His tone softened up a bit on this speech as he didn't wanna sound like a parent scolding a child. Kami knows how many times Iruka did that with him back at the Academy.

Laura looked down a bit in thought and raised her head back up to him with a calm expression. "Ok. No killing unless we're forced to." She turned down to the boss still in shock at almost being killed. "What about him, then?"

Naruto turned to the boss and used a bit of Genjutsu on him. "Sleep, and forget." His Tomoe spun around clockwise and the boss soon fell asleep and was snoring like a pig. "There, all better. Now, let's go pay Cadillac Jones a visit."

* * *

-The Facility R &amp; D Labs-

* * *

"Where am I? What's going on?" No reply. Like in the first hour she had been there, lying in just her underwear in a tube of glass, in a lab, surrounded by the woman who had helped in kidnapping her along along with several other people in lab coats. But she also noticed if for a brief moment, a man in a black visored helmet that kept his face completely obscured and he kept to the shadows before fading out of her vision. "Will you talk to me?" She said, raising her voice a little. The doctor just kept on observing what was going on a monitor. "What do you want?!"

"A little soy sauce would be nice." A necessity when eating Asian. Not the response she was fishing for, though.

"Oh, just your flesh. Well, not me, though. I'm just here to watch the show." Suddenly, black tubes appeared in her prison. A couple of them struck her in her legs and then on other parts of her body.

"Let's begin, shall we?" Said Harkins. And suddenly, the air was filled with a strange humming noise. Like something was charging up. She hit the glass surrounding her. Nothing, like before. She couldn't break it. Suddenly, she felt helpless.

"I have friends, they'll come for me." As soon as Cessily said that, the humming noise disappeared, and was replaced by the noise of an electrical current. The electrical current flowing through her body, making her scream in pain. "AAAAIIIIIIEEEE!"

Kimura quit munching on her lunch at the kids' response, and played out a smart ass comment. "Your friends will come for you, huh? Funny...that's what the elephant said." She pulled up a picture of what looked like cracked, broken, and fractured skeletal remains of what used to be Mammomax, and showed them to the teenage mutant.

* * *

_**And done! Part 1 is finished although this chapter was shorter than what I originally expected it to be. Naruto is now trying to explain the rights and wrongs of killing people in different situations to Laura which will help her to be more human than what she was in the X-Force comics. So now Xorn has arrived to check on the product that he has ordered, and had customly made for him by Harkins. What will he use it for in the future exactly? So until next time, make sure to swing by my profile to vote on your favorite girl for the pairing and to continue reading, following, favoring, and reviewing (please don't just say a few words as one). Peace out guys :)**_


	12. Chapter 11: Mercury Falling Part 2

_**Hello everyone and here is part 2 of Mercury Falling. Also I own nothing. Enjoy :)**_

* * *

Chapter 11: Mercury Falling Part 2

* * *

-O*N*E HQ-

* * *

Colonel Reyes was not a happy camper right now. No sir-ee bobby. He just got a report from the Sentinel squad protecting the Institute that a mutant just disappeared. "Dammit, we just had a mutant drop of the grid and no one even noticed it?! Shit...notify Summers...we're conducting a full accounting of all X-Men and students, whether he likes it or not. And get me Herrera, he was watching two mutants who left the campus." He was having no more damn casualties, not after the Purifier raid.

* * *

-The Grindstone-

* * *

The local fire department and police were surrounding the area cleaning up bodies and debris from the explosion that happened a few hours ago.

"The bomb squad gave the all-clear, Chief...they said there's more bodies inside."

The cops began to search the bodies of the civilians, but then they came across bodies that were cut the hell up, stabbed and shot whilst wearing strange gear. "What the hell...? Chief...you're gonna wanna see this."

"Oh, God...this guy's head is missing!" Well no shit Sherlock.

Up above on a nearby roof, Herrera, the O*N*E agent assigned to watch the two mutant girls who went off the school grounds was shot in the back several times and lied dead with his radio next to him. _"Herrera...Herrera come in! Colonel Reyes wants the mutants brought back in now! Herrera, are you there?!"_

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Vic and Josh were sitting in his room on the bed just staring at the dozens upon dozens of books just stacked on top of one another that had to with the medicine and health. How great...Vic was just a little confused on the matter. "Wow. He just gave you these?"

"Yeeaaahh...Dr McCoy was a little less helpful than I was hoping." Yeah, real helpful alright.

"So you really think knowing all this medical stuff will help you use your powers better?"

"Yeah. I gotta get up to Naruto's level of healing, or at least pretty close to it. You saw that he was able to revive the dead cells in Laurie's arm. But now, I just gotta read up for the next 1000 years."

Vic however thought the whole thing could have been easier with what the X-Men do. Telepathy. "You should just have one of the Cuckoos dump the info from Dr McCoy into your brain. That's how all the X-Men know how to fly jets and spaceships and speak Chinese when they need to. They cheat." And who says cheaters never win...hehehehe.

Santo opened the door and stuck his head in with some news that he knew would get under Anole's skin for sure. "Hey, nerds! We're being called to the auditorium. The O*N*E want to kill us or something. Especially you Vic."

"WHAT?!" He snapped tot he door at the last sentence.

_'Mission Accomplished...' _Santo thought to himself.

* * *

-Dust &amp; Pixie-

* * *

"...and then Mercury and X-23 were fighting in the hall, but then they went to Salem Center to go get a coffee, but they wouldn't let Rockslide go, and he was sad, but then Julian was looking for them and couldn't find them at all, but then Naruto disappeared after about a couple of hours, and nobody's seen him or the girls since, and..."

Dust was having a little hard time trying to keep up with what she said, since Pixie was speaking really fast, but she was able to make some of what she said out. "Megan, what...could you repeat...I...have you told anyone about this?"

"Um, yeah, I'm telling you now. Aren't you guys, like, the R.A.'s now?"

Dust raised an eyebrow at that. "What's an 'R.A.'?"

Surge, Hellion, and Prodigy walked up behind the two conversing girls, with Surge speaking up first. "Sooraya...where are Naruto and Laura?" She was a little curious where the shinobi went after their meeting with Cyclops. She knew that he went to grab something to eat before the two of them went hunting for more recruits for their team.

* * *

-New York City-

* * *

"Mppphmpph!" Naruto and Laura had gagged the man that supposedly had info on where the Facility was operating at, but he was another dead end like the last one. "Dammit, it's like none of these guys know where Cess is...you know anyone else that's got dirt on these Facility douchebags?"

Laura closed her eyes n concentration at someone who might know something, even just a bit. "There is one person who will know."

* * *

-The Docks-

* * *

"Wait, so the guy that could more than likely know where Cess is, was back here? Why didn't we go to this guy in the first place?" Naruto and Laura had went back to the docks, though a different place in the district.

"Because it was easier to get information out of the the others far easier, this man doesn't break so easily. Now be quiet."

"Alrighty then, so who is this guy?" The two walked right into a darkened warehouse and soon the several gun barrels pointing straight at them and cocked read to put bullets into their heads.

"The name dead boy, is the Owl." Naruto saw a man with some sort of Nosferatu getup and had a face pretty much like an Owl. He didn't look very intimidating, but he didn't look like the previous guys who caved at Laura's threats. "Remember it for the rest of your life...which should be about three more seconds."

* * *

-The Facility Lab-

* * *

"AAAIIEEEEE!" It had been going for hours, and with every attempt, it became more painful. She couldn't keep a shape anymore, because of the pain. Her face was barely there. They kept on removing pieces of her body, first with electricity, now with lasers…

"Wait..there it is." Harkins spotted a piece that they had managed to chip off her. "Anderson, give me biofeedback on the containment tube."

"Should we stop the laser?"

"No."

"Life signs negative, sir. The separated matter is dead." Said one of the assistants to Harkins. The doctor just sighed and run a hand through his hair, removing the glasses for the gesture.

"Miss Kincaid, your metallic form is determined to put up a fight." He put them back on and shifted his attention to his assistant. "Double the laser power. Run the cycle faster. We need the sample alive."

"No…no, please…please don't…" Unfortunately for Cessily, that just meant more pain. "AAAAHHH!" The laser hit her and caused her so much pain that she lost control of her form completely. So much that she finally managed to break the barrier keeping her trapped, injuring Harkins' assistant in the process. The current progress they were making was making Harkins impatient, especially with a buyer already here and half already paid. It just looked unprofessional. "Dammit! Containment's been breached! Take her down." That meant another electric shock to paralyze her.

"Uh, God. My chest. H-help…help me…" Anderson, Harkins' assistant, was showing clear discomfort at the amount of blood he was losing… But the doctor's attention was upon something else.

"Wait…look." The piece of Cess that had remained stuck on his body.

"H-Harkins...please..." Ignoring the pleads for help of his assistant, he simply held out his hand.

"Someone get a bio-container." The piece of Mercury started to wrap himself around the doctor's hand, while the man observed it fascinated. "Amazing. Organic metal. Look at it, Anderson. It's alive." He observed its movements, its tried to do something. "Look how it moves… It's trying to heal. It wants to bond to an organism…to flesh."

"Please…c-cold…" The doctor got up from his kneeling position while talking to his assistants. Now he knew how to extract it from Mercury and use it effectively to the weapons.

"We're proceeding to stage three. Prepare for sample replication, and prepare Xorn's subject." He walked away, going to prepare the machinery they would need. "Oh, and someone get Anderson a medic." Anderson did good work for him and was very helpful. It just didn't look professional to have someone die during a simple process like this.

Harkins began to make his way back to have Kimura get Xorn's weapon as it was highly more aggressive then the others and needed to be restrained in a massive adamantium harness, and muzzled to keep its deadly mouth closed since due to the modifications, it had a secondary jaw that would shoot out of it mouth and its mandibles could shoot out a good distance to capture and draw in prey.

As he made his way over to its containment unit, hew saw that Kimura was just staring right into it, like she was looking at something completely crazy going on inside, and that's exactly what was happening. He got a good view of what was going on inside; Xorn was standing right in front of it forming some sort of hand sign from the looks of it, and there was some black substance covering the whole right side of its body. It seemed to be in pain, but the substance appeared to seep into the creature somehow. As it finally seeped into the body, Xorn ceased the hand sign and turned towards the two way glass and stared at it for a while, he seemed to know that they had seen him do what ever it was he did to the creature and spoke up. "It needed to know who was master...and who was servant. Now...don't you have a process to complete? I'm fairly certain you want the other half of the payment don't you? If so...then get to it. My associate will be here once its been finished to handover the rest of the money."

* * *

-Naruto &amp; Laura-

* * *

The Owl dude just sat in his chair without a care in the world, and acted all high and mighty. "The Kingpin's favorite assassin coming to me and begging for help. My, how the tables have turned."

Naruto stayed silent as he knew that he was just a nobody in this dimensions shadow world, and let Laura do the talking as she was far more familiar with people like this from he theorized. Laura went straight to business. "Owl, do you have the information we're looking for or not?" She wasn't going to stoop to begging to this man.

The Owl's face contorted into one of annoyance. "You dare speak to me like that? The respect you showed Fisk, you will show it to me, little girl!"

She didn't have time for this crap. They needed the info from him, so she got right into his face. "You are only in control of the Kingpin's territory because he left the country. You will remain in power only until he returns or someone kills you. So no, I will not show you the same respect."

Now he was pissed..."You're dead, girl! You and your pretty boyfriend are dead!" The men now had their guns on the teens ready to pull the trigger on command. "Kill them."

Laura turned to Naruto. "Now."

"Shinra Tensei." Naruto held his hands out towards the guards and they were all sent flying backwards and hit the wall to be knocked unconscious and unable to do anything. Owl was wide eyed in shock that he was now defenseless and at their mercy. Laura hadn't moved at all from her spot, she walked over to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, picked him up, and unsheathed her claws. "The first rule of negotiation: Know who you're dealing with. The Kingpin told me that." That was one of the cardinal rules of the shadow world. Now down to business. "Tell me where the Facility is operating out of..." The Naruto joined into the conversation. "...or this owl may no longer have any wings." He grew a chakra rod and placed it on top one of his arms.

* * *

-The Facility Labs-

* * *

"Hnnn…"

"Wakey wakey, miss Kincaid." She would have preferred to stay asleep. She woke up to find her again behind glass, but in a different lab. And yet again, she tried to reason with her captor.

"Please…your name is Harkins, right? Why are you doing this to me? What do you want. Just talk to me."

"What do we want? The Facility I work for is a business, Ms Kincaid. We provide our clients with weapons. In fact, your friend X-23 is one of our best creations." Harkins decided that he could tell her that at lease, since she was going to die eventually. "Our current client wanted us to create a very specific item, to do a very specific job. He left it to us to how to proceed. He did, however, offer to supply us with a single crucial ingredient that was necessary to complete the weapon." He turned around and pressed a single button. A massive door opened up with what seemed like some sort of conveyer on the ceiling carrying something massive and heavy into the room. "Unfortunately, you and your friends killed him before he could deliver us the material."

She and her friends had killed someone? Who could have... "Stryker…"

"Indeed. So that is why we came to collect you, Ms Kincaid. You are that final ingredient." The conveyer had stopped and she saw what was being carried by it. A gargantuan creature that was being shackled up with metallic clamps, braces and had a muzzle on its mouth. It began to thrash around its restraints at the sight of Cessily.

"Oh my God. That thing…"

"Impressive, isn't it? I'm calling it Predator X. Although, this one is rather special and the buyer has already arrived, so we'll be starting with this one, and then on to the other three, less advanced Predators." Harkins put on a pair of goggles, that were needed to protect his eyes from the bright lights that were about to fill the room. "All it needs now is skin. Your skin." Her eyes widened at that.

"Nonononono…please…" They were going to cut her up and rip part of her body out and bond it to that thing. "Don't…don't do this."

"Shhh, it's ok…it's ok...we don't need all of your flesh and it's very likely you're going to survive! Which is good…" Harkins wasn't Kimura, that was certain… "Because the creature will be hungry when the bonding process is completed." But he had a knack for dark humour as well. He turned to his assistants. "Fire it up."

"Please…" The humming noise was back. And with it, a kind of laser. Only this time it was a web. A web of lasers. "You don't have to…" She never managed to finish that sentence. Because there was pain again. Excruciating, enormous, invalidating pain. "AAAIIIIEEEE!"

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

After conducting the attendance, Cyclops decided to take the food Colonel off to the side for a little talk. "Hasn't the O*N*E learned anything after the 198 incident?" **(AN: Read X-Men: Civil War for more clarification on the incident.)** "Does Val Cooper know about this? The students are not prisoners here, and I will not..."

He was cut off by the Colonel, he wasn't trying to be rude, he wanted Cyclops to know that things were desperate right now. "We are simply trying to protect you! Cyclops...you and I have both failed these kids. And I don't intend that happen again."

Their conversation was interrupted by a O*N*E agent and Kitty. "Colonel Reyes!"

"Scott...you should hear this."

"Colonel...agent Herrera, he was tailing Mercury and X-23, but..."

Scott was rather annoyed that the Colonel ordered that his students be followed if they left the grounds. "You had an agent following my students?"

The agent continued on while the Colonel had ignored the visored man's question. "Herrera's dead. The coffee shop they were in...it's been destroyed."

"The girls?"

"Missing."

"Kitty, find Surge and Hellion, then..." He stopped abruptly as he was contacted by Emma who was doing her own searching. "Wait. I have Emma."

_"Scott...I'm with Mr Alleyne. Ronin, X-23 and Mercury are all of the school grounds. Meet us in Cerebra. And have someone go collect Surge and Hellion before they get hurt."_ That didn't sound good.

* * *

-Outside-

* * *

Surge and Hellion were outside with Rockslide and Dust ready to leave to find their teammates, buuuut a giant O*N*E Sentinel was blocking their path, so she made a threat. "You've got about one second t get out of our way."

The pilot just looked down and knew that they really couldn't take him...or could they after Nimrod? Either way, he couldn't let them get out. _"Look, kid...don't do this. Something's going down, and we have to keep you on the campus grounds. We're here to help you, Nori. Let's just find out what's happening, and then..."_

Surge just decided to fuck it all to hell, and go. "Rockslide...sic 'em."

"AWWW, yeah. I like you more and more every day, Ashida." He cracked his knuckles in anticipation of the work out he wasn't going to be getting.

Kitty knew just where to look for the kids. "HEY! X-BABIES!" She also knew how to get their attention rather well. The results were good as they all turned to face her. "Knock it off and come inside. We've got info on Cess and Laura. You're gonna wanna hear it."

* * *

-Cerebra-

* * *

"Do you have them?" Cyclops and the Colonel entered the room to get the news. Emma gave it out from what they could tell. "I'm piecing it together now. X-23 and Mercury left the school to go into Salem Center after...an incident. Onyxx saw X-23 re-enter an hour later from the entrance to the Morlock tunnels. She was covered in blood."

"Why didn't he report it?"

"Onyxx has...issues Colonel Reyes." Especially after the Purifier raid.

"I'm activating Cerebra now. You may want to hold onto something, colonel." Emma started to focus. In the room appeared a psychic representation of the U.S. She began to scan for Mercury as she was in the most danger at the moment. "Cessily isn't showing up, dammit!"

"What about X-23? Maybe if we can track her down, then…"

"Unless you have any other obvious advice, Mr Alleyne, I'd like to concentrate now." Emma replied. David muttered a silent "Sorry." Emma scanned for Laura and found her with ease, with the exception of Naruto, he probably cut off all telepathic communication.

"I have them." She began to read Laura's mind. "They're at the northern border of New York. They think they know where Cessily is." She focused more. She needed more details, and she didn't like what she was reading. Not one bit of it. "She's been captured…by the people who created X-23. The children are going after Cessily." She tried to talk to Laura, to stop them, to wait for the rest of the X-Men to help…"X-23! St..." She lost them. They had entered a zone shielded from telepathy. "...op. Gone. They're gone. I've lost them."

"David, prep the Blackbird. We're going after them." Stated Cyclops, just as Surge and Santo entered the room as well.

"What's going on?!" No one paid attention to Rockslide's remark about David's flying skills. "Don't let Alleyne fly! He sucks!" The Colonel replied…

"Let the O*N*E help, Cyclops." He said. "We know a thing or two about tracking mutants."

* * *

-The Facility-

* * *

"Hhh… Ht…" All the pain…it finally stopped… But it had left her in a broken state. It hurt to think, it hurt to talk, it hurt to just keep a human form… "Help…me…" It hurt to cry. Her eyes were unfocused. She was laying on her left side, the only thing in her vision the edge of the non-glass part of her prison. Her hearing caught every noise in the room and brought them to her like one messy amount of chaos. Including the hisses of the creature who was now covered in her flesh. It began to thrash even more so with her skin and they started to change between solid and liquid states, most likely as it was trying to adjust to the skin.

Xorn watched as it tried to get loose from the harness, but he decided that it should know better than to try and break free...he brought up a hand and formed a sign and said..."Obey..." The Predator finally stopped thrashing and had remained calm afterward. Harkins approached him from behind and got straight to business. "Now, Mr Xorn, I believe that this is what you wanted?"

"Yes, you have done good work. It will help me greatly in the future. And the rest of the payment will be here...now actually." He pointed to the side and a figure began to grow out of the ground, it had some sort of yellow-brownish skin that had organic looking wires all over it, had red eyes, and a humanoid form from the looks of it. A Technarch. Now _that _was a rare sight indeed. "My associate Magus here will provide the money up front." The alien then reached inside its body and pulled out a large suitcase and opened it up to reveal the massive amount of money inside it...the other half of course. "You don't have to worry about it not all being there. It's already been counted. I believe our business has now been concluded." Again, he wasn't rude, just rather like a confident smartass. "Oh, and you may want to hold onto something in the next few minutes."

Harkins grinned at the sight of the money. "Of course, but don't hesitate to contact us for any further business you'd like to conduct." He picked the suitcase up and made his way over to his assistant and handed it over.

"Contact Risman and tell him that the creature should be ready for delivery within the week." Harkins observed with care and a bit of pride his newest creation. "And tell him that we went ahead and m…" He interrupted his speech when the ground shook and an enormous explosion filled the air around him. He almost fell to the ground, and the alarms went on. "What?! What is going on?!"

**"Alert! Alert! Perimeter breach! All security personnel report to building one!"**

"What is going on?!" Cessily didn't notice that either. The only thing she felt was one of her silver tears slowly falling down on the bridge of her nose. Harkins just kept on shouting in the intercom. "Someone report, dammit! Where's Kimura?! Kimura, report! What's happening down there?!"

_"Relax, Harkins. It's nothing we can't handle."_

Harkins decided to let loose the advanced Predator X to deal with whatever it was quickly but he was too late. "Mr Xorn I..."

"Bye, bye now." He waved in a mock goodbye said in a singsongy voice as he disappeared in a swirl that appeared out of nowhere along with the Predator and the Technarch.

Harkins clenched his fist in anger. "Son of a bitch! He knew this was going to happen! Oh well..." He turned to his assistant. "Get one of Risman's in here for the bonding process. Fast. Now."

* * *

-Three Months before M-Day; the Church of the Reverend William Stryker-

* * *

William Styrker had contacted the Facility for help as he saw something that made him pale in Nimrod's visions, and had a simple answer for him. "The antichrist is coming." He was contacting the head scientist, Adam Harkins was his name, over a vid-comm setup in his church.

_"I'm sorry could you repeat that? The what is coming?"_ He wasn't religious nut job like Stryker, so he didn't know what the fuck he was saying.

"The Lord has shown me a vision of the near future, Mr Harkins. When the children of Satan will be decimated."

_"You mean mutants...right?"_ He played along for the time being.

"Indeed. And when that time comes, my Purifiers and I will lead the charge against those who survives the Lord's wrath. But after our war is waged, we have seen that the Devil will strike back against us. Satan will send to this world a mutant so powerful, we alone will not be able to stop it." He tried to make the scientist see reason behind his goal. "This hellspawn must be hunted down and destroyed, for if it survives, humanity may once again lose control over Eden."

_"You paint a very grim picture of the future, Reverend."_ He was sarcastic, even if he wasn't trying to be.

"That is why the Lord has brought us to you, Mr Harkins. God seeks your help in saving his kingdom." Risman had told him about the Facility and its past record with creating weapons shortly after recruiting him. "Can your Facility create the weapon we need?"

That plastered a smile on the scientist's face for sure. _"A biological weapon that seeks out and feeds on mutants..."_

"Yes."

_"I'm a man of science, not faith, Reverend..."_ He rubbed his fingers together indicating the need for money. He had to get food on his table somehow people. _"...but if your check clears, we can build you anything you want."_

* * *

-The Facility; Now-

* * *

Naruto and Laura were flying with his power all the way to their destination. And they had blasted their way through the roof and down into the basement where the main lab was located at. They were up against at least 70 or so armed guards, not including the rest of the staff. They had a plan in place for the front door, and for the escape. Immediately they both began to neat the crap out of each of the agents and wiped the floor with them. Naruto dusted his hands off as they finished up. "Well, that was fun for a couple of seconds...now to fi..." He stopped as he sensed the malicious intent behind him, and a loud screeching noise began to overwhelm his ears.

"I bet you said you were about to find the freak...huh? Well too bad brat. Feels like your brain is turning to mush, doesn't it?" Indeed. It really felt like that. Like his brain was liquefying. It was like being hit by the Sound Ninja techniques. "Well, trust me. It's nothing compared to what the poor little clone is feeling." Kimura leaned down and grabbed Laura by her hair and slammed her into the nearby wall.

"L-Leave her alone...you bitch..." Muttered Naruto. Kimura smirked and stuck the sound-waves generator to her right shoulder.

"So X, you've got yourself a boyfriend…i'm impressed…but you've got a lot to learn about first dates." She got out of her right pocket a vicious looking knife, holding it blade down, and turned to Naruto again. "Keep watching, cutie! You don't want to miss this." She turned to Laura again, the smirk still in place. "Welcome home, X." She struck her down through the chest. She loved doing this. She loved… Wait a minute. She would have expected at least one of them to cry out or something. Instead, the boy had muttered something almost inaudible. She turned to him again. "What was that?"

"I…said…" He continued. But it was a grinning Laura who finished the sentence.

"Surprise, you cunt!" Suddenly, the duo disappeared in cloud of smokes. Before Kimura could even understand that she had been tricked, a sharp object hit the sound waves generator and impaled it into the wall near her, destroying it. She turned around, to see a massive black skeletal hand grab her whole body and slam her into the very same wall. The owner of the said appendage was the white haired boy who had just tricked her, who was suddenly in the middle of the room along with X.

"You…fucking brat…" She couldn't break free. The grip was unbelievably strong.

"Shadow Clone and Transformation Jutsu. Did you really believe we would jump in here directly into enemy territory without a plan?" Mocked Naruto, while approaching the imprisoned woman step by step, bending the elbow of his Susanoo's arm. "What should we do with her, now?"

"Kill her, Naruto."

"Huh?" He turned to see that she was grabbing ammo off a few of the downed agents and grabbing Kimura's knife that she dropped. "Kill her. Kimura's skin is indestructible, I can't kill her but you can. Use the Human Path to rip her soul out. She's a monster...she deserves to die."

Naruto looked back to Kimura in thought about what to do with her, and then she spoke up. "She's right about me." Naruto narrowed his eyes. She was mocking him? Even in this cluster fuck of a situation? "Too bad that you and I both know you don't have the balls to do me in, buddy." So Naruto decided to give it to her straight. "Actually I do have it in me to kill you. But they fact of the matter is, is that you're too damn pathetic...you're not even worth killing." That got her wide eyed. "Here let me show you...Tsukuyomi!" She saw that his eyes changed color and a pattern appeared in them.

Kimura found herself bound to a cross and all of the colors were inverts with the sky being red, and the colors on her and the...hundreds of brats black, grey, and white! And they were all carrying swords, then she felt something she never thought she would ever feel in her life. She was stabbed right in the chest by one of the white haired kids. "This is Tsukuyomi, the nightmare realm. Here...I control all of time and space...for the next 72 hours you will be repeatedly stabbed in the chest. Then the torture began.

Back in the real world, Kimura was breathing heavily and panting at what just happened. It was an illusion, but a damn good one too. She had felt fear when she looked into his eyes into the strange pattern inside them. She wasn't used to fear in a long time. "Wh...what the fuck was that...?" She managed to stutter out. "I told you, Tsukuyomi. Now to add insult to injury..." He brought her off the wall and created a Shadow Clone for something very special. _'Kokou, I'll need your help with this one.'_

_**"No problem Naruto! Give this human what she deserves!"**_

The clone put his hands together in a Tiger Seal, his skin began to turn a pink and he began to smoke. "Boil Style: 1000 Years of Death!" He shoved it right where Kakashi-sensei did to him all those years ago. **"Hey, you know something? That perverted sensei of yours would be proud of you and rolling over, laughing his ass off right now." **Kurama had chipped in.

_'Without a doubt in the world, hehehe...'_

* * *

-Another Dimension-

* * *

"ACHOO!" Kakashi had wiped his nose after sneezing out of nowhere while rereading Make Out Paradise for kicks. "I get the feeling that someone is talking about me somewhere."

* * *

-Back with Naruto-

* * *

"There now we don't have to worry about her for a good while, giving us plenty of time to find and get Cess out of there." Naruto and Laura then made their way to the lab that was holding the hostage teen. Naruto immediately used his superior strength to bust down the doors and found a terrible sight. A tube with some sort of grey liquid thrashing about trying to get out. It was Mercury..."Cess!" Naruto shattered the glass tube letting her spill out onto the floor and tried to put her back together somehow. He decided to ask someone who might be able to help out a bit. _'Shukaku! Is there any way you can help please?!'_ He got a response from the Tanuki, but not one he was hoping for..._**"Sorry kid, I got nothing to help her with my Magnet Style, she's gotta reform herself."**_

Laura began to sniff the air, and found that something was off..."Naruto...something is wrong. Cessily's scent...it's everywhere."

"Come one Cess, you can do this! You're strong enough to pull yourself together!" Soon he began to see that the puddle was beginning to form into a face, Cessily's face and she spoke up weakly. "Nar..Naruto? Please...make them stop. Make them stop hurting me..." Naruto realized that she was out of it. She thought that whatever they were doing to her was still going on.

Laura tried to grab his attention again and express urgency on their current situation. "This is wrong. Naruto, we have to leave now!" Naruto starts to sense Cessily's energy in several spots and mixed with something else, he turned to see the closest signature but it was too late.

All of a sudden a large creature jumped out from the shadows and trampled Naruto. The creature began to run towards Naruto, she immediately jumped out its way and she got around on its back and dug right into its back. It began to roar in pain. Naruto got back up and grew a chakra rod to start cutting up the bastard...it was extremely embarrassing that an animal got the jump on him like that, seriously he was better than that! WTF?!

Cessily finally managed to reform herself to give them a more clear message. "Laura...more than one..."

Soon four more Predators jumped into the fight and they all converged on Laura. Naruto thought that it was extremely weird, but he went to get their attention. "HEY ASSHATS! OVER HERE!"

Two of them looked back at him and had looks of...befuddlement? It was odd. This one didn't smell like the other two. But it seemed to present a danger. It needed to be eliminated.

While Naruto and Laura dealt with the Predator X's, Harkins observed the whole fight. "Look at them Anderson...their hunger for the X-Gene is insatiable. It's as if they're aware that they'll die without it...and while X-23's arrival was unplanned, she'll be the perfect test run for the creatures alongside the Ronin boy. It'll be good to have her back in our possession...provided she survives, of course. Though had I of known that Xorn would high tail it out of here, as he knew this was going to happen, I would've started with Risman's Predators, but we where fortunate to be able to bond one of them at least for him."

Naruto was trying to use his bigger Jutsu's to kill the animals in one hit, but odds are he would've killed the girls in the process, so he settles for just using the Asura Path to improve his strength. _'Man, I really wish right about now that I had the Exectuioner's Blade with me...'_

Harkins continued on as the fight continued. "See that? The mercury not only bonded, but changed the biology of the host creature. The Kincaid girl probably doesn't even know how powerful she is."

While Harkins kept on watching the result of his latest experiment, his assistant arrived. While his superior was the head honcho, he seemed to be the one with common sense. "Sir, shouldn't we be going?"

"The clone just cut one..." Laura dodged a swipe and cut the creature across his back, only for the cut to disappear almost immediately. "...look at how it reforms. The creatures won't stop until they've consumed every drop of mutant blood. This is our finest creation, if I do say so myself. Though it's odd, once they were let loose they all converged on X-23 and not Ronin at the same time, rather they focused purely on her...why?"

"Sir, please!"

"Fine, Anderson..we'll go. Once the creatures finish here they'll move on to other feeding grounds...and if the Reverend's 'antichrist' really does exist, they'll find it."

* * *

-With The Teens-

* * *

"COME ON YOU BASTARDS! GO DOWN ALREADY!" Naruto shouted to the animals, he had managed to kill two of them though, which was good, but they still had three more to deal with. "Laura we gotta get Cessily out of here, she's not safe, and your starting to tire out."

"She's in shock and there are agents converging on us. We are not in a good position right now." She turned to him with her peripherals and spoke some words, that Naruto no way in hell would let her do. "I will hold them off as long as I can. You have to take her out of here, and run."

Naruto was not having her pulling some noble suicide move, not on his watch. "No way in hell am I letting you do that! I'm letting you or anyone die today!" Naruto decided to say fuck it all to hell. He created a Wood Clone and they both formed different hand signs.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

"Wind Style: Air Bullets!"

The Wood Clone then went up infron of the group and cast another Jutsu. "Wood Style: Dome Wall Justu!" The wind enhanced fire bullets lit up and struck the Predator's skins and they began to roar in massive pain. Their new skin was beginning to melt and sear their muscles. The wooden wall protected them like a charm and the Wood Clone went back into Naruto, soon a backdoor opened with an agent with his rifle calling in some extra help. "They're in the labs, we need reinforcements at the..." Laura had pulled out knife she she had picked up from Kimura and threw it right at his head killing him. Naruto picked up Cess bridal style and carried her with him and right behind Laura. "Alright, so the helicopter in the hangar is our best way out, right?"

"Yes, we can..." She was about finish explaining, but then she smelt burning metal closing in behind them. "They're here." She slung out her confiscated rifle and began unloading into the Predators to hopefully slow them down...sad to say it didn't do shit. Cessily came around and saw what was behind them, and was terrified at the thought of being tortured again. "Oh, Laura...Naruto...they took part of me. My flesh...they need my mercury...please don't let them take me back..." She managed to say weakly before passing out again.

She was putting her life on the line for her friend, she was not going to let her be some experiment...not like her. "I won't." Laura threw the gun at them while Naruto grew a chakra rod and called out to Laura. "Here! Catch!" He threw it at her and she caught it, held it in a reverse grip and managed to cut off one of the Predators head clean and with ease. Naruto saw that Laura was about to be in quite a bit of bind so he brought up a hand and pointed it open towards her with an open palm. "Bansho Ten'in!"

Laura felt some force being placed on her and then she found herself being held by Naruto's arm next to him. "Limbo Hengoku!" This was honestly his first try at the Jutsu Madara had hit him and the other Tailed Beasts, and it did some good at threw the animals back against the wall hard, but they recovered if rather weakly from the Rinnegan's attack.

Cessily was seemingly getting back together and conscious. She saw one of the creatures, just lying dead on the ground in front of her. That smell seemed to wake her up a bit. "They took part of me…" She stretched her left arm, and she saw how that part of her body that had bonded with the creature returned to her.

Soon, Facility agents arrived to corner the teens and the Predators were back up on their legs, wobbly though, and ready to pounce. It seemed bleak for the young X-Men...suddenly, he heard a loud noise coming from the outside…and then an even louder noise coming from above. He and Laura turned around to see, a giant sentinel ripping apart the structure's roof. Above it, the Blackbird. And from the blackbird…he smiled.

"What the...?!" Said one of the agents.

"Finally! We got back up!" Shouted Naruto. From the blackbird was falling down half of the full roster of Astonishing X-Men and all the remaining New X-Men. Surge and Cyclops leading the charge, attacking the creatures as soon as she landed on the ground.

"X-Men, take them down!"

"Santo! Sooraya! Julian! Get to Cessily!" The two leaders took down one of the creatures with their first joined blow, while a second one attacked Colossus. Kitty yelled out to warn him whole she took down a few of the agents. "Peter! Watch out!"

"I see Cessily!" Dust shouted out to the rest of the X-Men.

"Dude! There's evil robot grizzly bears in here! That rules!" Santo was being himself in of the fight."

The Sentinel that was with them took care of it. _"Colossus...move!"_ Rockslide, Hellion and Dust started to take care with ease of the soldiers. Naruto spotted the last Predator X trying to make a getaway skirmish, but then he readied up a Goudama to shoot straight at its head. "You're not getting away you bastard..." He shot it and cleaved the head right off. The nightmare of the Facility was over at last.

Emma approached Laura, a look that was between sad and apologetic. "You were right. I should have left the school." Said the brunette.

"Laura, I…" She wanted to apologize for the harsh words that she said to her.

"Now Cessily will never be the same…" Laura's gaze shifted to the silver girl, who was being attended to by a worried Julian.

After investigating the lab for about an hour with the help of O*N*E, they found many things inside. "There were mutant corpses in the various labs. They were being experimented on." Colonel Reyes had told the X-Men.

"Then we did not hurt these people enough, Colonel." Colossus was angry at this, for he too was experimented on by people, but mostly aliens really, either way...he was pissed off.

Cyclops asked a question pertaining to known people within the Facility, namely the head doctor. "Mercury said there was a scientist named Harkins...any sign of him?"

Reyes shook his head. "No...we took in grunts and low level scientists, but no upper level people."

Nori was still raw about the events. "I can't believe Stryker did this...even after the bastard dies, he's still hurting us."

Rockslide was gloating over how 'awesome' he was and how much the senior X-Men sucked...mostly to Kitty. "So what did you even do while Dust and I were taking down guys down? Oh, right, you 'phased'. Awesome." He turned to Elixir who had come along to help heal anyone that needed his help. "Geez, Foley, I wonder if we'll ever get to be real X-Men like Ms Pryde here. It seems really hard." He was sarcastic of course.

"Don't make me kill you, Vaccaro."

* * *

-Julian &amp; Cessily-

* * *

"Here you go, Cess." Julian had taken upon himself to stay near Cess.

"Julian, one of those…things…there's another out there, and it's bigger." Replied Cessily, while Julian covered her with a blanket.

"No one knows that for sure. They're sweeping…" Mercury cut him off again.

"No. I know that there's another one. Someone came and took it before Naruto and Laura came." She simply said, and she then turned her head in the direction of the forest. "I can feel it out there."

* * *

-Xorn's Hideout-

* * *

Xorn had finally arrived after receiving his Predator X from the Facility. He knew that the X-Men would've arrived soon and that he didn't want to reveal himself just yet. He sat down in a chair while Magus was monitoring the Predator X that was being let into a massive glass cage.

Xorn punched up a few keys on the arm of the chair and then two holograms of two different men showed up sitting in their own chairs.

"So did you get the fuckin' thing?" Said one man.

Xorn gestured to the side behind him. "See for yourself."

Both holograms looked at it and were impressed with the design.

The other man that had not spoken up raised a question with an uncertain tone. "And you're sure that this will help us in the future?"

"Yes. I already have it mapped out and a few key components that I have listed. Now all we need to gather are members. I already have a few currently in mind. But I cannot make my move just yet. I will contact you when I have an important update. Continue to lay low, and move out of their sights and gather a few agents for yourselves as well. Until next time."

The three men nodded in agreement and the conversation was cut to a close. Xorn turned to Magus and spoke to the Technarch alien. "Ensure that it is prepared within a week as without the original that Mr Uzumaki had killed, it will be needed at that time. Also keep a backup of its entire structure and being on file for analysis. This will help provide a baseline to help create _it_ and the rest of the plan." A dark shadow would soon be cast on the world in the future. He then pulled up several screens with six other people that he would approach at the opportune moment.

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Ever since they had come back to the mansion, Cessily had isolated herself in her room. After cleaning up and getting some clothes on, she hadn't done anything but sit on her bed, hugging her legs to her chest, and stared at nothing. People had come to check on her from time to time, but after a few words she just told them that she would have liked to stay alone. Other than Sooraya. She had been the last one to visit her…and she felt like she needed to talk to someone. The knock on her door signaled to her that they had arrived. The door opened to reveal Laura.

"Sooraya said you wanted to talk to me." Said the clawed teen, closing the door right behind her.

"I just wanted to thank you for saving me, Laura…I mean again."

"Those people…the Facility…" Then, tears started flowing down her eyes. She stared at the ground, but she was talking to Laura. "What they did to me…" The pain she had endured…she couldn't believe someone could ever suffer that much in their Lives and somehow stay sane. "Did you ever spend your whole life there?"

"Yes." Laura's reply was simple…but to Cessily, it held all the truth of the world. She threw herself at the girl and hugged her around the waist.

"Oh, god Laura…they hurt me so bad!" She broke down, crying out, hiccupping, and tripping over her own words. "It hurts so much!" For both girls. Cessily… But Laura. Laura had been hurt like that every single day of her life "It hurts…"

"I know…" Laura tried to comfort her, placing her hands on her back, hugging Cessily back.

Outside of their room, a sniper scope had zeroed in on Laura's head and as it turns out...Kimura had managed to get up and track them back to the mansion. She couldn't find the Shinobi as he was responsible for her not being able to walk right for the last few hours but finally managed to get right for a bit...just enough to kill someone. She smirked at the thought of finally killing the girl who she had enjoyed tormenting her whole life. "You're dead, clone."

But just as she was about to pull the trigger...her moment interrupted...she heard a voice above and behind her. "Do you ever wonder why you take such pleasure from abusing a little girl who cannot hurt you, let alone defeat you? No, I thought not." Emma Frost knew she was on the grounds, no doubt for payback on Naruto and Laura as she was humiliated by the Shinobi.

Kimura spun around and pulled out her pistols to put her down, but..."You'll notice that you cannot move. I've shutdown all of your motor control so that you can listen while I enlighten you. You are a bully, plain and simple, but also a bitch. A product of your past..." She didn't have any mental defenses so to speak, so she saw how much the woman enjoyed beating down on X-23 when she was still in the Facility. She saw that she too had suffered and became the torturer in turn.

"Being kicked around your whole life by an alcoholic father and an uncaring mother at home, only to find the same waiting for you from your peers in the schoolyard, day in and day out. You were born into a life you did not deserve...a life no child deserves..."she just kept on talking while Kimura still tried to act all tough, despite her mind being probed by the White Queen. "Someone needs to fill the role of victim and you played that part for so many...until your grandmother came to your rescue." That hit a nerve. Kimura started to falter a bit.

"She called you her 'sweet child'. She did everything she could to undo the damage everyone else had done. But sadly, she came too late. All the hope and good you held onto was beaten out of you long ago." Her guns started to shake as she desperately tried to make a get away, but Emma wouldn't allow it. "After your grandmother's heart attack, you found your way to the Facility, to the men that could give you what you wanted so badly...revenge. A hollow prize, but one you begged for. And once you'd gotten the best of those who wronged you, you became the very person you hated and feared growing up. And X-23 played the role of your victim." Now the assassin was sweating at her words...they rang true, but she couldn't do anything to fight back.

"Like you, Laura didn't deserve that horrible life. No child does, remember? But you didn't care. Even though you knew all too well the pain she suffered, you enjoyed inflicting it. You still enjoy it." Her face was now full of fear. Then Emma got right into her face and said exactly what she was at the begging of said, enlightenment. "That's why your a bully and a bitch."

"Why are you telling me this?" She still didn't get at what _she _was getting at.

Now Emma would get to work. She felt that she needed to do something to makeup for what she said to Laura, as she had put her life on the line for someone she barely knew. Though she felt that it may not be enough, but it was a start at least. "Because today you go back to being the victim. It's a shame the people that perfected tour body didn't do enough to safe guard your mind."

Now to explain the process to woman. "Memories are quite amazing. Did you know that no two are the same?" It was rhetorical of course, simply to show that she was smarter than the assassin. "For example, some are woven through the mind and buried deep inside a person's psyche. Laura's programming to trigger scent is like this. I fear I may never be able to pull that conditioning from her."

She placed a finger on Kimura's temple and began the process. "Other memories are more like stains that taint moments around them. Pain, loss and death are normally the memories that poison the thoughts that surround them." Kimura felt like something was a miss now...she couldn't remember what it was now..."And then there are those that rise above the rest. These are thoughts that come to us first when we think of those we truly hate and love...like those of your grandmother."

"No...wait...what are you doing?" Frost was wiping something away from her, but what was it?!

"You've taken those that X-23 loved from her, now I'm just returning the favor. And just like, that she's gone..."

"What...what happened?" How did she get here? Who was she trying to kill now? Tears trailed her eyes due to the echo of the memory that used to be her grandmother. Emma decided to further explain to her simple little mind. "I've taken your grandmother from you...the only person who ever showed you love and kindness...and in her place, I've left a deep void that will cause you pain for a lifetime."

Emma got back up and was making her way back to the mansion, but turned her head back to face Kimura. "Now before I let you go, I have a mission for you. You're X-23's ha dler? Now you will 'handle' your masters at the Facility. Every last one of them, beginning with Harkins. Goodbye, Kimura." Then she left back to the school and let her work do the rest.

* * *

-Germany-

* * *

It was a quite night and everything was at peace for the time being...but then a hole tore through the sky and what looked like a small comet came through it and landed violently in the ground inside a town.

There was a figure in the crater...a woman in some sort of silver garb that had horns on her helmet. She was heavily injured and had barely made away with her life at his hands.

She spoke very weakly. "Help me...someone please...he's back." Amanda Sefton had been cast out of Limbo, and now its rule went to someone considerd to be a _true_ devil...but he too would see the power of someone also considered a devil.

* * *

_**Next...Quest for Magik! I hope you guys liked this chapter, though I don't feel very happy with it. I'd like to see if you guys can guess who Xorn was talking too. So continue to read, favorite, follow, and review (please give an actual review instead of saying a couple of words please guys). And make sure to stop by my profile and vote on the poll please. Thanx, until next time :)**_


	13. Chapter 12: Quest for Magik Part 1

_**Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of the story and the start of a new arc, Quest for Magik. I had done some major research into some of the characters and I will help give more details into what is said about the past that led to this arc. So enjoy! Also, I own nothing.**_

* * *

Chapter 12: Quest for Magik Part 1

* * *

-The Institute; the Common Room-

* * *

A few of the students were gathered in the common room and telling a few scary, funny, and awesome stories. Rockslide, as we all know him to be such a big gloater and fibber, was just telling the biggest tall-tell of all time...

"...and that's how I defeated the Sentinels, sent Apocalypse and his Horsemen running, told Xavier to go to hell...saved Hellion from Wolverine and his magic sword, scored with Lady Mastermind, defeated those vault dudes and saved the Cuckoos from the Phoenix Force. And, um, the World-thingy."

"Cool!" That was just way to awesome to describe...if it were true at all...

"He's making it up, Nick."

"You weren't even there when the X-Men saved the Cuckoos!" Victor knew that for a fact.

"Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah? Well, you come up with a better story! If you tools want any chance of making it onto the team, you're gonna have to suck up better!" While Rockslide was still talking Pixie flew over to where Blindfold was and wanted to see if she had anything to share, as she noticed that she wasn't being very social for a bit and wanted to get her involved.

"Blindfold? Did you have a story to tell?"

She turned around and began to speak. "She does, yes, thank you. You need to know, please. You need to know why. You need to know how it began. The demon lord came from hell to take the girl, yes. He wanted to her innocence, her soul to appease his dark masters, to let them enter our realm and feast. A fellowship of heroes fought to win her back. They failed. The girl fell into darkness. Now the demon lord was her master."

Everyone just felt the temperature drop down a bit after hearing that...

"Whoa." That's all Santo had to say.

Anole was just creeped the hell out. "Geez, Blindfold." Pixie was just hiding behind Rockslide and peeking over his shoulder. "Um, good story. It's done, right? Please?"

Rockslide actually wanted to hear more...maaaaybe he could use some of it to make himself look like a badass.

Blindfold continued on with the dark tale. "The heroes feared she was lost, they did. Then she appeared before them once more, but changed. Older. Darker. Foul. Changed. Her soul was now stained black."

Pixie spoke up again. "Guess not."

"They didn't realize, excuse me, that time was different there. That for the minutes she was gone, the girl was trapped in hell for years."

"Ok, but was the girl hot?" Santo was curious...but it tends to get him in trouble. Pixie smacked him on the back of the hand at what he just said. "SANTO!"

Nori was roaming the halls trying to find Naruto. She needed to talk him about what he had pulled with Laura in going alone to find Cessily. She passed by her room and stepped in to see Julian trying to make Mercury's sleep a bit better. He was sitting on the edge of the bed trying to comfort her a bit.

"Nnn...no...please..." The nightmare of the Facility still plagued her mind, she would never be the same cheery and outspoken person that she was...not after all the torture and experiment they preformed on her to extract her skin.

"Shhhh, Cess...it's ok. You're safe now. You're just dreaming."

Nori spoke up silently to get Hellion's attention without waking up Cess. "How's she doing Julian?" She was worried about her friend. She couldn't take losing anymore.

"I don't know. She wakes up screaming." He got up off the bed and went to the window looking out at what should've been a safe haven for the mutants...though it would be different within an hour..."They got her out of there, but she won't tell me...she won't tell me what they did." He lost Brian, Kevin was nowhere to be found, Jay was dead...Santo was almost killed...he didn't know if he could take loosing Cessily too. "She's tough Ashida. She'll get through it. Right?" He wasn't sure to be honest himself.

"Yeah. Of course she will." She tried to ease his worries a bit. "Hey, do you know where Naruto is? I need to talk to him about something."

"I think he was outside or something..." Julian last saw him sitting under one of the trees in a pose of sorts. "I'll head with you, I need to get some fresh air. I got a feeling that it's gonna be a long night anyways."

* * *

-Blindfold-

* * *

"And in the time she was trapped, yes, so began the demon lord's tutelage of the stolen child. For seven years, he raised her as his own. He taught her the dark art, gave her a taste of power within her. But piece by piece, he shattered her soul. From the shards, he created Blood Stones to allow his masters entry to our world. She struggled to resist the darkness growing within her. And she was not alone in her struggle against the demon lord. Several of the girls heroes had remained in Limbo, where their bodies and souls were twisted by the realm's darkness. They helped the girl rebel against the demon lord. She forged a Soulsword and rose up against her master, banishing Belasco from Limbo." Blindfold had said quite a bit...

Santo was a little peeve that it didn't happen in a more badass way. "Banished? You should have had her cut off the guy's head or something. With blood shooting up from his neck. That would have been way more gnarly."

Anole was piecing together what Blindfold was telling them, turned to Rockslide and tried to explain it from what he heard. "Rockslide, this...I think this is real. I read about this in the X-Men's files. Belasco and the Soulsword, I mean...those are real things. This is something that happened to the X-Men."

Rockslide just played tough. "Hey, my story happened too. Especially the part about Lady Mastermind." Seriously, her outfit was hot...

Anole was trying his best to be patient with the golem...but he has limits. "WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY ABOUT THAT?!"

"You're just totally jealous, Lizard Boy!" As if...

Nick started to smell something around and encircling them...it was almost burning. "Do you guys smell something burning?"

Ben turned around thinking Wolf Club was getting in on the teasing and stuff. "Very funny, Nick."

Anole was trying to get through to Santo that something bad was going to happen soon...very soon..."She's a precog, Santo!"

"Well, if she's telling stories of the past, then she's a re-cog!" What an idiot...he just didn't get it.

Nezhno was trying to meditate nearby, but the yelling was distracting him from peacefully doing so. He should have joined Naruto outside instead, but he wasn't used to the cold like Naruto was, so he stayed inside instead. So he got up and asked nicely. "Excuse me, could you please lower your voices?" He spoke to everyone. "I am attempting to meditate."

Santo then turned to the Wakadan boy with weird ass tattoo's. "No, you shut up!" Well that escalated quickly, if it were anyone other than Nezhno, they would've socked him in the face.

"Especially you, rock person. Your voice grates." He was still polite, but pointed Santo out amongst the others. Pixie flew over him to shush him up too as she shook her finger in her face. "Shhh! Quiet, Nezhno! Blindfold is telling a story."

* * *

-Elixir and the Cuckoos-

* * *

Hank had fallen asleep at the time, and Elixir needed that medical know-how from him. So he asked the Cuckoos to help dump all the info into his head. Reading all those books would've just taken up too much time, and McCoy was just really lazy at the time...not very helpful at the time honestly.

"This will end badly." Celeste protested against the idea though.

"Shhh!" It seemed that a lot of shushing would be done tonight. "And no, it's not going to 'end badly', this is going to work. Trust me." Honestly, they were the three-in-one hive mind...this should be child's play for the girls. "You said you could do it, right? Anything about genetics, human and mutant biology, medicine, anything you can get."

The girls weren't very convinced. Not after the whole Phoenix incident before M-Day, when still several of the students and staff were a little weary of the sisters. "But Dr McCoy already is uneasy around us, after what happened." Phoebe explained a bit.

"It'll be fine!"

Mindee backed Josh up. "We should do it. We were going to do it for David. There's no difference."

Celeste countered..."David would've been awake."...not a very good counter, so Mindee rebuffed. "Dr McCoy is a teacher. He'd want Josh to learn all he could." Even if it was cheating in a sense. The girls worked together to dig out and put into all the knowledge that Josh needed, and was bombarded with so much information. "I...I didn't know. I didn't know." So many thing s he didn't know about that he could heal and fix in other peoples bodies. Now he was at least at Naruto's level.

* * *

-Blindfold-

* * *

"Belasco waited, yes. He waited for an opportunity his apprentice back. And then, something he was not expecting...she died. When Belasco returned to Limbo to collect more souls for his masters, a human sorceress had taken the mantle of Magik. The Black Sun faded. He was defeated yet again. The Elder Gods exiled him. Punished him. But even exiled to the hellish realms beneath, Belasco was not without power. And he sensed something happening in the worlds of light above him. With a blood sacrifice of a minor demon, he was able to access old magics. The simplest of spells. And through his spell, he saw two siblings force all of reality to change. And he saw his apprentice...Illyana Rasputin."

Anole's eyes widened up at that last sentence. "Wait, wait, wait...he saw Illayana Rasputin?"

"You mean Colossus' sister? Isn't she, you know, dead?" A good point.

Anole looked back at Blindfold, just wondering what the hell she was talking about. "Blindfold, what kind of story are you telling us? Is this really happening?"

At that point, Naruto walked into the room and was a little curious about what they were doing. "Hey, guys what's up? Telling scary stories? I've got one." He was gonna tell the one about the people losing faces that Yamato told him while they were out at sea that one time.

Pixie flew over to him and shushed him up as well. "SHHHH! Naruto, Blindfold's telling story right, wait your turn ninja guy. Oh, also Nori was looking for you apparently, she went outside I think." Pixie flew back to her spot and asked Blindfold a simple, but stupid question. "So if Colossus' sister is in the story, is Cyclops? Because that's be the best." Hey, she was a fan of the guy...don't ask me why...

Naruto made a Shadow Clone and had him go outside to find Surge, and he sat down on the couch with the others as Blindfold continued on. "The Demon Lord's apprentice lived once again."

Alani was confused on the whole altered reality thing. "I don't understand...what did she mean, 'reality changed'? In the story, or in real life? Wouldn't we have noticed that?"

Question after question soon popped up. Naruto was curious about what she was saying and paid attention.

"Who is this Illayana again?"

"Who's 'Colossus'?"

Blindfold ignored the questions and continued. "...but then suddenly as Illayana had reappeared among the living to the exiled Belasco, she disappeared once more. For one brief moment, though, Belasco felt her. Now gone, hidden somehow in the light realms, he thought, the demon lord began his quest to take back what was his. And so he began the journey through the dimensional veils of Limbo."

Naruto started to sense something closing in around them, he took out the Gunbai he had sealed on his arm and stayed weary, while the students were drawn in to the continuing story.

"But Belasco's return to Limbo would not go unchallenged. The hellish realm Belasco had molded into his own image over the years had changed. It was now in the hands of a soul not so black as his. And she sensed him coming. The moment he stepped foot into Limbo, she turned the land itself against the demon lord. As well as Limbo's denizens. For weeks, Belasco cut his way through the demons of Limbo, every bloody step taking him closer to the sorceress who overtook his throne. While she sensed him, he sensed her as well. She was light in the the darkness of Limbo. But she had no idea the rage Belasco would unleash on her. For you see, the sorceress had taken the name Magik, and names have power. When first they fought, Belasco could have unveiled the pretender's true identity, but perhaps part of him wanted to believe that his apprentice was alive. But now, the deception angered him. That anger gave him power. And the sorceress no longer carried Magik's true Soulsword. Overwhelmed by ancient demon lord's power and rage, the sorceress was defeated, and expelled from Limbo through the dimensional veil. In truth, it matters not to Belasco whether she had lived or died. She did not matter now. Amanda Sefton fell, she fell to Earth two days ago. Limbo was under the control of Belasco once more, and the land became darker than ever, yes. He resurrected his demon army this morning, and looked up towards the light realms. He could not sense his apprentice anymore, but instead smelled her faint scent on the children inhabiting the X-Men's mansion above."

Naruto's eyes shot up wide and turned to Blindfold. "Wait! He's coming here?!" He already had his Gunbai out but then he unsealed the Executioner's Blade out as well for extra weaponry to take on whatever this 'Belasco' guy would throw at them...shame he didn't see what was coming next...

She took of her bandages revealing her empty eye sockets and spoke. "He thinks we know where she is, yes. The demon lord is coming for us. But he will fear what will come for him soon."

The other students got really worried and scared shitless at what she just said.

"I don't like you anymore."

"Oh my God."

"That's one freaky chick." Rockslide was still clueless that these were real events.

Anole turned Rockslide and was starting to panic. "She said that Amanda Sefton was defeated! Two days ago! This is happening!"

"What are you talking about? It's just a story."

"This is happening right now! We have to tell Cyclops...we have to get the X-Men!" They knew Belasco and Limbo better than anyone else, and had the best chance at defeating him.

Pixie was shaken at the story. "Are we going to be ok?"

Blindfold turned towards her and gave her some dark words. "No, thank you. I am sorry for your loss, Megan."

"What?!"

Naruto sensed the dark energy closing in all around them inside the building and around them. He tried to warn them all..."Guys we gotta...!"...but he was too late. The floor collapsed with everyone falling down into a fiery, hellish abyss.

* * *

-Seven Minutes Earlier-

* * *

Mercury was still having nightmares about lab in her room. Anole and Rockslide were still arguing on the story. Dust was praying in her room. X-23 was training down in the Danger Room. David was staring out the window wondering what his girlfriend, Surge was doing outside with Hellion. Elixir came from behind and got his attention.

"David..."

"Nori and Julian went outside looking for Naruto. But I coulda swore I saw..." He stopped after turning around to look at Josh's appearance. He pretty much was only wearing pants tied with a sash...was this some sort of hippie thing he got into? "Josh? Where are your shoes? Are you ok?"

Josh felt just...well...there wasn't really anything to describe how he felt after receiving all of the medical knowledge from Beast. "I don't know. I mean, I know everything. I know...I always knew, but now..." An idea came across his mind...he looked at David's eyes, and then back to his hands. "I'm going to touch your eyes."

He reached over to David with a finger pointed straight out and touched the bridge of his nose and a brig guy light sparked emanating from Elixir. "What? Josh, what are you..." He then felt a sudden sharp pain in his eyes. "AAAH!"

"It's ok. I know what to do now." Josh reaffirmed his friend.

David wanted to know what he did to him..."What is the matter with you, Josh? Why would you...why..." but he soon got an answer in his eyes...his vision was now distorted behind his glasses. "Why are you blurry?" He took his glasses and saw that Josh had completely fixed his sight. "My vision...you fixed it." He was practically now on Naruto's level of healing, or at least pretty close to it.

"I know."

* * *

-Outside-

* * *

The Sentinels were watching the grounds like hawks now after recent events. Alexander Lexington was wide awake after having a few cups of coffee to keep him going for the night, then he'd sleep after the rotation on pilots-guards. "22 hundred hour sweep in progress...all students accounted for, as well as the X-Men 'A' team, and ninja kid."

That kid was a nightmare...seriously, he didn't know how, when, or even where...but he got ahold of the pilots uniforms and dyed them all bright orange and had exposed some other guys porno stash to the other female pilots. Safe to say he got off easy after getting a verbal beating, and a kick to the groin...seriously, they just couldn't understand how he was able to pull crap off like that without anything getting back to him. Well no one saw him do it, but they knew it was the Shinobi. "Hang on...two students are on the front steps...Ashida and Keller."

_"Be advised, Megaton, both students are red-flagged. Upgrade alert status."_

"They're just talking, command. Ashida's a good kid."

_"Keller's a dick, and didn't Ashida threaten to attack your Sentinel the other day?"_

"It was a misunderstanding, ok? They're just kids. Wait..." He stopped and saw the utter nightmare of a kid walk outside. " Yeah, uh...the ninja kid, Uzumaki just walked outside towards the other."

_"Hey, Bill! Hide your other 'stash'!"_

_"Daaammmiiiitt!"_ Yeah, the other guys found out about his other porn stash. Apparently the kid wasn't fond of perverts who masturbated to magazines in place of having sex with their actual girlfriends.

"Hey, Nori. Pixie said you were looking for me?"

Nori and Julian turned to the shinobi and Nori talked back to him. "Yeah, I..." But she was interrupted by a massive firestorm that blew the mansion sky high.

"Oh shit!" Naruto then formed the handsigns: Rat → Dog → Tiger. "Wood Style: Domed Wall Jutsu!"

The kids were protected behind the wooden wall for the time being, while the Sentinel outside stood its ground and was shaken violently with the pilot screaming over the radio and intercom. _"Megaton to O*N*E command, we have a situation!"_

Nori and Julian were shielded behind the wall with Naruto and they needed to find a way behind the massive wall of flames. Surge turned to Hellion and gave the order to punch through the flames. "Keller!"

"I'm on it!" Hellion charged up his telekinetics to get through the flames and started pushing through. "Hang on, I'm coming! I'm..." But the flames forced him back, rather violently in fact. "AAARGHH!" Naruto caught him with his Susanoo's arm and got him back with he and Surge. "I...I don't...I couldn't get through. It's like there was a wall there."

Surge was scared shitless, and it all happened so fast...even after the bus incident, she still shook easily. She couldn't loose anyone else again..."This is not happening...this is not happening...David!"

Naruto turned to her and snapped her out of her panic. "Nori! Stay calm and focused! We need to get help from people on this side! My original is in there, don't worry!" He turned back to the former sight of the X-Mansion engulfed in flames, a little worried for everyone trapped within.

* * *

-Elsewhere-

* * *

Blackness...utter blackness. That's what was in his vision right now after the explosion had happened without any warning. He had begun to wonder if he was dead or not, but he heard a voice and he began to stir. "David! David! You must wake up now!" He could make out the words, and his brain complied to them, and his vision started coming back. He saw that his friend Dust was the one calling out to him. She was restrained in a large clump of rocks that covered her entire body, but had left her head open for her to breath. "Uhhh...Sooraya? What...what happened?" He felt like hell right now...funny words for him to be thinking right now...

"David...we're in big trouble." He heard Mercury's voice to his right and started to take in in his appearance. He was strapped in chains up against a stone pillar and he had no maneuverability. "What? Where are..." That's when he finally got a grip on where he, and many others were at right now..."Oh dear God." There were literally in hell right now and they were surrounded by demons, restraining everyone. Laura was trying to get free from her iron clap restraints, while everyone else were still in shock and fear from what was happening.

David turned to the girls next to him up on the podium above the demons down below. "This...this is bad. All I remember...was fire. Like there was an explosion. Cess, did you see..." She cut him off midsentence. "I was asleep, and then I heard screaming. The Cuckoos." She peered down below and saw three unconscious people with room helmets on their heads, and then a fourth one that wasn't attached to anybody at all. "Those...those things were putting them inside those helmets...they haven't moved since. I think that's Martha in the other one."

David already realized that this was planned. "They knew to take out the telepaths. Naruto, Julian and Nori aren't here...I take it you guys can't use your powers."

Cessily was starting to panic a bit and tried to get out of the rocks holding her down. "Get us out of here David. You have to get us out of here."

Sooraya tried to say something in this situation, given that their teachers and Naruto had told them that they need to be calm and analyze the situation. "Cessily..." But Mercury's temper rose and panicked even more. The Facility incident really shook her up. "Don't tell me to calm down!" The rocks then starts to hold her still and rather violently. "Get these things off of me, David!"

David turned to Cessily and pleaded with her. "Cessily, stop! You're just making it worse!"

Dust then turned to a large alter in front of everyone and she remembered an old saying that some people would use: Speak of the Devil...and surely he will appear. "No...oh, no..."

Belasco stood over everyone in fine clothes that made him look like a noble from the middle ages. S'ym, his right hand demon stood alongside him and was the demon responsible for corrupting Madelyne Pryor; Cyclops' first wife, into the Goblyn Queen, and nearly bringing hell onto Earth. The Astonishing X-Men were trapped in a green pillar unable to do anything, and Emma also had an iron helmet strapped on her head to prevent her from trying anything. Dust spoke after realizing where they were..."Shaitan. We are outside of Allah's sight. We are in hell."

Cessily cried out once more. "DAVID!"

Belasco floated over to the three kids being restrained, and spoke slowly in a deep demonic voice, wanting them to understand that he really didn't have a whole lot of patience right now. **"Where. Is. She?"**

David didn't understand what he was getting at. "...She who? Who are you? What do you want with us?"

Belasco turned to David and grabbed by the chin with S'ym grabbing his forehead and pulled him up to his master. **"You were with her. I can smell her on you, on all three of you. You will tell me where she is. Or you and your friends will suffer."**

X-23 on the other hand was trying to find a way to get a message or something out back to O*N*E. She finally saw a bit of hope as she caught the sight of a hole leading back to the mansion high in the sky. Unfortunately she couldn't do anything about it, however..."Hope Abbot." She turned to the girl currently struggling out of the grasp of a demon. "OhGodohGodohGod...what is this thing touching me?!" Laura ignored the girls shrieks and started to explain her plan. "According to your file you are an astral projector. Use your power. Go up to where the light is."

Hope turned the goth wearing girl like she grew two heads all of a sudden. "Are you serious? Go into the light?! What's up there?!" She hoped that it wasn't heaven or anything, she still didn't wanna die so young.

"The Institute."

"What?! How can you tell?!"

"I have excellent vision." True, but hers was still nothing compared to Naruto's.

"Seriously?!" She was having a hard time believing it.

Josh piped up to try and make things easier for them. "I can fix them. No matter how bad he hurts them, I can fix it."

Laura thought he was completely naïve and stupid in this situation. They were in Hell, or a realm very much like it. "He will not hurt them, Josh. I can see it in his eyes."

"Well...good." He didn't like the way she put it. She corrected his understanding. "You misunderstand. He will not hurt them...he's going to kill them." It was in the nature of such creatures like Belasco. Now they all had a feeling that none of them were going to make it out alive.

* * *

-Elsewhere in Limbo-

* * *

Santo felt a hard slap to his face and a loud voice. "Hey rock face! Wake up dammit!" Naruto had been giving Santo a several slaps to the face in order to wake him up. "GAAHH! Ok! Ok! I'm up! What the hell just happened!?" Naruto stepped off Rockslide to let him get up after falling down a flaming hole. The area that they had landed in had large cracks and crevices in the ground with flames and sparks of fire shooting out into the air. "The Common Room looks like crap."

"Well this kinda tops my scary story. Alright he's the rundown: Blindfold told us a demon dude was gonna come for us, but apparently we landed somewhere else and now we have no idea where the hell everyone is." Naruto just felt a little weird down what looked like Hell itself.

Match looked to Anole for some reassurance of safety. "The X-Men will come for us, right?"

Vic threw his hands into the air at the question. "They don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to their students lately, do they?"

Naruto sat down into a meditative position to try and gather some natural energy but Kurama interrupted him before he even began. **"Kit. Forget it. There's no point in doing that, for all we know, you could get corrupted by the energy down here."**

_"Crap. Gotta have some sensing down here though."_

**"Better to just use my negative emotion sensing and your new eyes right now."**

Naruto got up and grabbed his ninja tools that he had set down to help the others get back up, and started to try and think of a way to get to the others either trapped or stuck back up.

Vic spoke to Naruto hoping he had something. "Hey, Naruto. You got a plan or something?" Naruto turned towards the lizard boy. "One of my Shadow Clones should still be back up topside with Surge and Hellion, they're prolly trying to find a way to get everyone back up by now, though if anything I can't exactly sense the others down here. I might actually get corrupted by all the crap floating around here in the air if I try to use Senjutsu. Though if anything tries to come after us..." He flashed the tools towards the boy for reassurance that he wouldn't allow anyone to die. "Right now the only thing we can do is wait and defend ourselves from anything that comes along. Sorry, it's all I got right now, since I'm no expert on Hell."

It seemed to ease up the tension on the kids for now, knowing that a supernatural ninja with the power of a God would be a useful thing.

Alani started to assure herself too. "No problem, we're ok...this is going to be ok..."

Nehzno turned to Blindfold hoping that she had an answer for what would happen to them. Meanwhile Naruto started to get rather tense as he started to sense out some pretty sick and twisted killing intent coming for them. "Girl...Blindfold...you saw this occur with your power. What happens next?"

She turned towards the edge of the crack of rock they stood on and spoke with her despairing voice. "She will come. But no, not in time."

Rockslide was just getting irked by Blindfolds words...everytime she spoke...it was despair this, death that, doom here, hell everywhere! "Blindfold I am going to kick you in the junk if you don't shut up. Everything you say is bad."

Naruto looked at Santo and reprimanded him. "Whoa! Hey Santo, I know that we aren't exactly in the best situation, but taking it out on a friend won't help at all!"

Blindfold turned to Naruto and spoke to him. "Yes, thank you for your words Ronin. She will not listen to you at first, rather later, but you have to save her. Excuse me, you will have to save Pixie. She is too important to fall to darkness."

Pixie widened her eyes at what was said about her. "What?! I..." That's when she and Naruto turned around to see a horde of demons coming up on them from behind...and they looked very hungry for the flesh of mortals like them. But they weren't gonna go down without a fight, Naruto leapt in front of the group with his weapons ready to take them on, but the other students weren't going to just sit by and let him have all the fun in kicking demon ass. Ben started to flare his body in his flames, and burned one demon away. Nicholas Gleason, also going by Wolf Club slashed at another and took out the intestines of it. Rockslide began launching fists in and out towards demons that were coming within his range. Naruto was cutting into demons one after another and swatting them away with the fan towards the other students who could finish them off. He turned to Santo and shouted out an order to him. "Santo! Get to Blindfold and Pixie! Protect them no matter what! I'll cut through as many of them as I can get! Everyone else, take out the rest that I weaken!"

They complied with the ninja's orders and took positions that would protect them the best they could manage without throwing them over the cliffside. Pixie flew over to Blindfold trying to defend her from the demons that managed to slip past them. "Blindfold! Look out! Oh. No. Sorry! I mean move!" She then threw out some of her signature 'Pixie Dust' to distract them from their original prey. "Hang on!"

"Yes, thank you, I will." Blindfold truly was.

The demons started to get rather dazed and confused looks after getting the dust in their faces saving them for a bit...who would've thought that demons could even get high? "It...it's working! Brilliant! They're stopping!"

Blindfold was a little confused, even though she had no eyes so to speak, she could still 'see' them. "Hey, they're not running." Pixie was also confused at that too, which prompted Blindfold to ask what the deal was. "Excuse me, what does the Pixie Dust make them see?" All this time and Pixie still didn't know what her dust made people see...what the fuck!? "I have no idea. Something awesome I bet." Actually what the demons were seeing were something out of some lollipop-bubblegum land...Pixie was just a cluster of brightly colored bubbles, while Blindfold was a cuddly teddy bear. Might as well have been My Little Ponies, if you ask me.

But a few demons were slipping through the others and got closer and closer to the girls Rockslide was nearby pounded the crap outta others, Pixie called out to him for help. "Santo! Help us!" He turned to see that one was closing in on them and pointed his fists out towards the creature. "I'm on it! Eat fist demon!" But Blindfold saw what would come next...and tried to warn him..."Rockslide, stop please! No, it doesn't work anymore, please..." But she was too late...he then exploded from trying to use his fists on the demon. Naruto and Victor got distracted by the explosion and left them exposed to the demons, Naruto knew one was right behind him and back licked it in the face, caving in the skull, while Victor wasn't so lucky. "Santo! Everyone, regroup at Blindfold's position! I'm gonna take these bastards out now!" Naruto shouted out. Victor got his right arm cut off by a demon behind him. "AAARRRGGGHHH!"

"Victor!"

That's when Naruto appeared beside him and tried to grow his arm back, while bringing out his Susanoo to kill the rest of the demons off. Four massive arms formed swords and cut the demons down several at a time, several of the demons caught sight of the massive horned being and cowered in fear and tried to run a way from it, but all of a sudden an axe cut off the head of the last demon and then Blindfold spoke up at the new arrival. "She is here. The Darkchyld is here." Illyana Rasputin had returned from the dead. She carried a large bloody axe in her hand while her other hand had ahold of a chain wrapped around the neck of the demon N'astirh, another demon responsible for the corruption of Madelyne Pryor. She had bits of armor strapped to parts of her body, while she also had a demonic looking tail and goat legs that started from her knee caps downwards. She truly was a child of darkness. Naruto kept the Susanoo up while he tried to regrow Vic's arm, but he saw that his arm was already growing back without his help. Slowly but surely. He hoped that his clone and those topside were doing something right now to get them all out.

* * *

-Belasco's Castle-

* * *

**"Where is she?!" WHERE IS ILLYANA RASPUTIN?!"** Belasco was at his wits end. These children were lying he smelt it in the air!

David asked the name as a question. He was trying to play dumb and hope that they'd get out alive...that was the plan anyway, or rather the one he just came up with and hoped that the others would catch on quietly. "Illyana...Rasputin?"

S'ym caught on to the way he said it. "He knows, Master."

Laura shouted out to the girls next to David. "Cessily! Sooraya! You have to do something! You have to fight!"

David was trying to play it off, but he had a feeling something was gonna go wrong soon..."I'm sorry...Illyana Rasputin is dead."

Belasco's eyes became darkened and the atmosphere grew heavy. They lied to him...even when he gave them the chance to come forth and be truthful...but then again, they were brats, and now they shall be punished accordingly. **"You lie. YOU LIE!"** He thrust his hand outwards and grabbed David by the chest and violently yanked him out of the chains and took his beating heart right out of his chest. The other students could only cry out in horror at what just happened before their very eyes.

"David!"

"NOOO!"

**"Now...I'll ask again. Where is she?"** Belasco had David's blood on his face while he still had the heart in his remaining hand.

Laura saw this as way to get free and get a message up above to the surface. She managed to get her foot claws out and gave Hope the signal as she cut the demons that were restraining them down. "Trance! Go!" She sent her astral self up the light were the remnants of the mansion remained and the demon soon got a confused look on his face at the limp body of the girl no longer squirming in its grasp. X-23 cut Elixir out of his captor and he ran to David's body, hoping he could do something to save him. Belasco and S'ym saw the event take place and the subordinate offered to deal with it "Let me kill them."

**"Watch the others. These children are mine."**

Cessily was in shock at what happened, she still hadn't gotten over the Facility, and now she was down in hell and saw one of her friends die. "OhMiGodOhMiGod, David..." Laura continued to hack away creating the distraction for Trance to get the message out while Josh went over to David and looked at what he could do. Laura had cut Mercury and Dust free from their restraints. "Cessily, Sooraya! You have to fight!" She leapt over in front of Belasco to take him head on. It was something she thought Naruto would do, though granted he was probably the only one who could take him on right now...but he was nowhere to be found, so she'd have to hold out until then.

Josh was looking into David's chest and saw what he was missing, maybe he could..."Superior Vena Cava, Aorta, Pulmonary Artery, Veins, Left and Right Atrium, Tricuspid...Oh Hod, please let this work." His hand began to glow and began the process at restoring what was ripped out of him...but so far...nothing. "Come on!" As he said this words, the parts of that were ripped slowly and surely began to reform themselves inside David's chest cavity and his heart had been fully restored. Now Josh had to kick start it. "COME ON!" Aaaannnndd...Success! David jumped up from the ground with his hand over where he had demonic attack take place and kill him. "AAAHH!" Josh slumped to the ground in exaustion.

X-23 was cutting into Belasco with her claws on his chest and face...sad to say he just healed from her attacks. **"Pitiful child...your little claws are nothing against the power of the Elder Gods."** He grabbed her by the throat while she tried to cut it off, but it seemed like he was draining her of her stamina. **"Your soul isn't even worth taking...it reeks of man's science. You're not even real."** Laura spat in his face and retorted. "I know that I was made in a lab, but I doubt you would even know what a soul is, since you don't have one. You'll regret with the torture and killing. Someone else will kill you. You'll only make things worse for yourself." She knew only Naruto had the power to do so. Belasco smiled devilishly at her words. **"Then let him come."** Huh...if only he knew...what came next was a flash of light literally...Laura felt nothing within the instance it happened. Belasco completely disintegrated X-23's flesh down to the bones and claws and they landed in a pile before the demon lord.

"LAURA!" Mercury and Dust shouted in unison...they had to do something now...Laura just died trying to give them a chance to fight back against the demons, but they were just too afraid to do so, now they were going to do just that: Fight like hell. Belasco turned back the X-Teens and began anew with the question. **"Once again. Where is Illyana Rasputin?"**

* * *

-The Wastelands of Limbo with Naruto and the others-

* * *

"The Dark-what?" Naruto asked, but he already knew who. Illyana Rasputin was the Dark-whatever the hell Blindfold said.

Alani saw that Victor was bleeding out a bit from his stump of an arm and went over to help Naruto keep him on his feet. "Naruto can you heal him? He's bleeding out and he lost a lot of blood."

"Yeah, I got him. Hold on." Naruto grew a Wood Clone out from his shoulder to let him finish regrowing Anole's arm. He saw that the 'Darkchylde' watching him as he made the clone. He knew what she was doing. Analyzing them with careful eyes, though she paid more attention on him than the others.

The Darkchylde had kept them from getting killed and needed something from them, otherwise they were going to lose against Belasco should they try anything, but the white haired boy caught her attention very easily. He had a massive pitch black ethereal warrior with three eyes, four arms, and two horns that made up the real attention surrounding him and it looked ready to strike. _'Him...? Maybe, but wait, something else is about him...no he won't do, his is pure...but not innocent, he has killed, and I need one pure and innocent. Not only that, I feel a massive source of energy from him…it's not of the mortal plane, but not from a plane of Hell, it wouldn't work on him even if he wasn't stained with blood. He is…different, and dangerous.'_

"Whoa...she's got horns and a tail! Is that really Colossus' sister?" Wolf Pack asked in a stance ready to strike if she tried anything.

Illyana continued on analyzing the others before her, as she saw the whiskered boy would do no good to her. There was silence among them u til she broke it. "N'astirh." She spoke in Russian accent. "Bring me that one." She pointed directly at Pixie. _**"SKREEEE!"**_ And they demonic looking teen let the creature off the chain. "Oh, nuts." What else could a girl like Pixie say in such a situation? Well...there were many things, but that wasn't really her style.

The demon flew off straight for Pixie, but it was swatted away by the Susanoo. "Stay the hell down you bastard." Naruto wasn't about to let her do something without explaining herself for it, especially with they way she looked and how she eyed them all like tools to be used.

N'astirh got back up on his legs and threatened Naruto. "I will rip out your..."

"Yeah, yeah, you'll blah blah blah me and my intestines and soul, whatever." He turned to the demonic girl for answers, but she spoke before he could even say anything. Though the way she put it was like a question really. "You're fighting me? I saved you!" And then the answer…

Naruto arched an eyebrow at what she just said. "Saved us? How? I don't even remember you being upstairs with us. And besides even if you did, which I'm still kinda doubting, why the hell weren't you right here from the start?"

Magik had sat down on the edge of a crevice and waved her hand into the air. She pulled off the armor off her body showing her to be in a rather dark revealing outfit that looked like something out of the dark ages. Soon the metal was now in a perfect sphere, even Naruto had to give her props on how well she did that with the metal, he started wondering if he could do that with his Magnet Style. Magik spoke up to retort at his questions. "You're only alive because of me! Because I pulled you away from him. I used a simple teleportation spell to get you away from him before he dragged you down in chains. Unfortunately it took you away from me, something that I didn't see coming due to some interfering power, which now I think I know who."

She eyed Naruto like an annoyance, but she continued on with her answer. "If it weren't for me, your innards would be strung across Belasco's castle walls right now. Except for perhaps you." She pointed at Naruto with her tail, getting a confused look on his face. Now she gave them all a deal, or rather, an ultimatum per say. "So if you ever want to see your friends again...I need one of your souls."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at what she just said. _'This isn't gonna be easy...'_

* * *

_**Finally! This chapter was short for sure, but life got in my way for a while, but I managed to get it done. Now depending on how long my next chapter is, I may just end up adding on to this chapter for the arc, even though it's 5 issues long, and I've just written through 2 and a half issues for this one. So Naruto has finally met Magik, and he's not to pleased at what she's told them, and that his friends are being tortured right now. As for Blasco...well, he'll lose something for sure in the next part. Also, continue to go by my profile and vote on your favorite girl for the pairing, and continue to read, favorite, follow and review (No flames as they will be deleted). Until next time guys :)**_


	14. Chapter 13: Quest for Magik Part 2

**Now we continue on with the next chapter in Quest for Magik**

* * *

Chapter 13: Quest for Magik Part 2

* * *

-The Institute; Earth-

* * *

"AAAARRRGHH!" Surge tried to gather as much electricity and charge through the flaming barrier into the school, but it failed, and she was knocked back by the amount of force she put into getting through. "UHNN!"

Hellion was gathering as much TK he could muster to try and take the barrier down. "I can do this...rip the building in half..." He was about to do just that, but the Naruto clone put his hand on his shoulder. "Wait, hold on. I'm sensing someone trying to get through." Just as he said that, they saw a bright light flash out coming towards them and they saw that it was in the form of a human, but they also heard it scream. "AAAAAHH!" As soon as it landed on the ground next to them, it finally stopped glowing and they recognized who it was. "Hope!"

She got up quickly and looked around her. "Am I back?! Am I back?!" She saw Nori, Julian, and Naruto next to her and he asked her what was going on inside. "Hope! What's happening? Is everyone ok inside? Where are they?" Hope felt her astral form return back to her body, so she passed on what info she had to them. "He took us to Hell! He's killing them! He's going to kill them! He's gonna kill kill them all! His name was Belasco..." Her form was fading fast, and left words that would motivate them like Hell. "...Belasco killed David..." And then, she was gone, back down into the Hell below. The Naruto clone gritted his teeth at what she said. Belasco was gonna pay for this...

* * *

-Belasco's Castle; Limbo-

* * *

**"I was abandoned by my masters, usurped by a mortal woman...I waded through an ocean of blood to take back Limbo...and I will not be denied. You will tell me what I want to know!"** Belasco spoke over the kids suffering, while S'ym got other kids back under control who tried to fight back. He grabbed the chain wrapped around Indra's neck and dragged him along to the spot with the others, and grunted in pain as the chain was putting pressure around his throat and almost choking him. "Settle down, kid. The boss is busy."

Mercury and Dust started to get free from the rocks that X-23 had loosened for them before she was disintegrated. They finally got out and caught their breath after the struggle out of their restraints. Cessily had turned her entire body, including her hair into a liquid form while Sooraya had turned the lower half of her body I to sand. "Sooraya...I can't...I can't do this..."

"The devil comes, Cessily...please...pleas do not let me fight alone."

"Oh, God, Sooraya..." The sight of Laura's bones made her sick to her stomach, but she found that she couldn't right now. They had a devil to fight off.

"He is here..."

Rather than wait for him to start torturing them, the girls decided to strike first at the demonic lord. Dust started to create a sandstorm to try and sear his skin off while Mercury sharpened of her body, getting ready to tear and stab into his flesh when the moment revealed itself. Belasco shouted out to them in anger. **"You know where she is! You were with her! Answer me!"** Mercury got out of arm's reach from him and shot back at him. "We weren't with her! We don't know what you're talking about! We don't even know who you are!"

Belasco just smiled back her in a very disturbing way. He saw what they both feared so well...**"More lies. You know well enough to fear me. Both of you, so afraid. I can taste it on your souls."** He turned to Dust. "**You. Afraid of the Devil. Afraid that you are not so worthy of your God's love."** Then to Mercury. ** "And you...so afraid of being hurt."** Then he looked deeper into her soul. **"Ahh, hurt again. The pain is so terrible, isn't it?"**

Dust moved in on his back and preceded to tear his skin off, but he was to fast for them. **"HAHAHAHAHA!"** He shot at Mercury first with his magics and she began to bubble up, almost looking like she was about to blow up or even melt, it made him laugh at her condition. "CESSILY!" Dust cried out to her friend for reassurance that she was alright, then Belasco turned his attention to Dust and shot at her as well, lucky for her, her current form wasn't quite as susceptible to his magics, but it still hurt her greatly. **"I am the devil. And your time in hell is just beginning."** He would enjoy this for quite sometime...or at least until the air left their lungs...yes that would be nice, then he'd string the organs out across the walls of his castle, he heard from S'ym that human blood worked quite well as a fertilizer in Limbo.

* * *

-The Institute; Earth-

* * *

The O*N*E responded in the only way the could right now without the X-Men on hand. They had positioned the Sentinels in a tight perimeter facing the now erected magical barrier, that appeared shortly after the Sentinels had set up a perimeter. The heads of O*N*E and the kids had been inside the tent going back and forth that this was demonic magic at work, much to the Colonel's disbelief. He was man that believed in flesh, blood, and science; mysticism and religion didn't really get him. Val decided to be the mediator for the talk. "The energy field is unlike anything we've seen before, but again...we're not dealing with science anymore."

"You're not seriously suggesting magic?"

"If he weren't on SHIELD's blacklist right now, you'd be asking a guy named Dr Strange that question, Colonel. And he'd probably turn you into a llama for asking it. The X-Men and this 'Belasco' go way back, and it's not a pretty history. Our goal now is to find a way into Limbo, and pull the students and X-Men out." They returned back to the holographic image of the mansion, while a O*N*E technician perked up after doing some more research on the subject at hand. "I've got a hit, cross-referencing O*N*E and the X-Men's files related to keywords 'Belasco' and 'Limbo'. A woman checked into a German hospital two days ago, ID'd as Amanda Sefton. She's in a coma." The teens shared a look at one another and agreed already without having to say anything, while the technician continued on with the file after punching up more details and Sefton. "Amanda Sefton. Kurt Wagner's ex-girlfriend, sorceress, and as far as the X-Men know, current ruler of Limbo."

Naruto turned to the Colonel and told him straight up what they needed to do. "I can get her out of the coma and get her back her strength to get us into Limbo."

The Colonel already had an answer for the kids. "You three aren't going anywhere. The O*N*E will handle this." Valerie just shook her head at his foolishness, they needed a way into Limbo, and they needed someone to get them in and they needed an expert, and odds are, they wouldn't be able to get her out of her coma, not in time at least to save the mutants. Though she saw that the kids charged up their powers in cementing their determination. "You might wanna rethink that." Naruto said in his Tailed Six Paths mode.

* * *

-Belasco's Castle-

* * *

David was trying to get Josh to wake up so he could explain the plan he came up with in the last few minutes after observing the fight with Belasco. Though he tool particular notice to Cuckoos, Martha, and Ms Frost. That's when he knew what to do. "Josh...Josh, you have to wake up...I think Laura's dead."

Josh began to stir, but his body wouldn't let him move, he could only speak hoarsely like his throat had gone dry due to the lack of water. "So tired...I can't...I can't move...David...what are we gonna do?"

David looked back at where the girls were at. "He...he took down the psychics. They're a threat to him. We have to free the Cuckoos." Meanwhile Belasco was still toying around with Dust and Mercury and trying to force the answers out of them. **"WHERE IS SHE?!"** He threw Dust into a pillar so hard that it broke from the force...even though she was still partially in her more corporeal form. He turned to Mercury who was reforming after his last attack that made her melt down. **"Your transient forms may be more resistant to my magics, but it will just make the pain last longer. TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!"**

"No." She had to try and stop him, or at least stall him out long enough for Naruto and anyone else to come for help. He had to have gotten dragged down here too like the others, but he might've gotten thrown somewhere else. This was all she and Dust could do now. So she thought. _'What would he say and do right now?' _This _is_ what he would do. "I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't care. Not anymore. But I'll die a thousand times before I let you hurt or kill anyone else you bastard!"

Belasco narrowed his eyes at the girls words. It seemed that the girls fear suddenly diminished all of a sudden. This was...odd to say the least, never had a child he had seen, save for Illyana put their fear down to defy and go against him. Then he turned at the other girl that he threw against the wall not but a minute ago as she spoke against him as well. "And I stand beside her."

**"HSSSS..."** Faith was a dangerous thing.

"If today is the day I die, them let it be a death that makes Allah proud!"

Belasco's eyes glowed at their words and decided that it wasn't worth the trouble anymore to get them to talk. If they wanted to die before speaking, well then...**"So be it."**

* * *

-The Wastelands-

* * *

Darkchylde began walking towards the teens after giving her ultimatum to them. Naruto was on edge at what she might try to do and reabsorbed the clone, he let Vic know that his arm would regrow in a bit after he healed him, getting a confused look from him, but only for a bit as the demonic looking girl was currently their problem. "I can feel him. Belasco. He's hurting your friends right now. I know what he's thinking what he's feeling...but he's stronger than me. He made sure of that." Naruto wasn't sure what she was getting at, why did she need a soul? "What does that have to do with Pixie? Why her? You're not making any sense." So she clarified it for him. "The only thing that can kill him...is a Soulsword. And I've lost mine."

"I'm not letting you get anyone's soul. There's gotta be another way to kill him." Naruto said. He wasn't going to let one of his friends turn into...this...Darkchylde narrowed her eyes at the whiskered boy's words. "There is no other way. I need a soul to forge a Soulsword, to kill Belasco. That is the only way boy. You're a fool to believe otherwise." She turned her gaze towards Pixie and asked her a question. "Now tell me...do you want to save your friends? Would you give your soul to save them?"

"You want..._my_ soul?"

Naruto turned back to Pixie and told her to not take her deal. There would be no good coming from it. "Megan, don't! Don't listen to her! We'll find another way! There's always another way!" He told her what he believed, but sometimes that there is no other way with some people, as he learned. Darkchylde smiled...it wasn't one of those smiles as if they were laughing at a joke...but rather like she had something up her sleeve. She snapped her fingers and the grounds of Limbo suddenly encased them all, including the Susanoo that Naruto still had up and they could barely move. Pixie and the demon girl were now surrounded by the rocks and had no distractions at all to stop from what would happen next. "No more saviors little Pixie. You're all alone now." Megan began to whimper in fear and shed tears of terror, she didn't want her friends to suffer anymore, but she didn't want to live life without a soul. _'It looks like she needs more motivation...'_ Darkchylde brought out an amulet with a five pronged star and had 5 hollow holes at the tips of each, she was already prepared for the ritual. "I can feel them dying. I can hear their cries."

Pixie made her choice. She'd take the pain and free her friends from this hell. "Please...stop. I don't want any more of my friends to die. I'll do whatever it takes."

'**Kit! You've got to get loose! She'll die!'**

'_Dammit! No!'_

Darkchylde smiled devilishly at her words. Now she could begin. "Try not to scream." She held her hands out to the mortal girl's chest and began, then all they could hear were the high pitched screams of pain coming from Megan. "AAAAIIIIIEEEE!"

* * *

-Earth; German Hospital-

* * *

"This her?"

"Yeah, it's her. Can you get her out of it?"

"You're kidding me, right? Yeah, no sweat just gimme a minute."

Amanda Sefton had heard voices from her bedside but she didn't recognize any of them, then all of a sudden, she felt a massive burst of energy that brought back to, and somehow...rejuvenated her when she felt a poke on her forehead. She jumped up out of her bed and screamed a bit. "AAAAHH!" The doctors jumped at what the boy had done, he simply touched the woman that was in a coma and had woken her up. "Mein Gott."

Valarie Cooper walked up to the bedside to help Amanda get her bearings on the situation. "Amanda...it's me, Val Cooper. You're in a hospital in Germany...witnesses say you fell from the sky."

"What...where...?"

"You were in a coma. Can you remember...?

Amanda felt like she had all of her power again before when she brought Limbo together..."I don't...just give me a..." She paused as she remembered the last thing. "Belasco. Oh God...he's...I can't...the X-Men...he's coming for their children!"

Hellion rolled his eyes at what she said. "No shit, lady." Naruto slapped on the back of the head and have him a look telling him to watch his language around the women.

The pilot captain told her about the situation back in Westchester. "Ms Sefton...the Xavier Institute was attacked six hours ago. We have reason to believe this Belasco is behind the attack."

Amanda put a hand to her forehead. She was a fool to think that she could get to the X-Men in time to warn them. Surge told her what they needed her to do to help save them. "He's got our friends, and he's got the X-Men. We need you to take us into Limbo so we can rescue them."

Amanda knew that there was only one thing that had a chance against the demon lord. "Then we need the Soulsword."

Hellion was a little confused on the matter. "The what now?"

"Illyana Rasputin's Soulsword. Kurt has it...we have to find Nightcrawler." She had hid it inside him as she believed he was the one would be the most responsible with it and if a time came up, use it.

Everyone's looks in the hospital room went from desperation to depression...fantastic. "You have got to be kidding me." Hellion slumped down while Surge face palmed a bit in depression. Val knew that he and a few other X-Men had dropped off the grid and they had no idea where they were at. "Amanda, Kurt isn't...he, Xavier and a few other X-Men have been out of contact with us for the last few days and we have no idea where they are, and we can't get in contact with them."

The sorceress closed her eyes in believing that their fate was sealed. "They're dead, then. The X-Men, the students...they're dead."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her words. He didn't believe in fate and it sounded like she just said that's what it was, he saw what he assumed was her outfit. He grabbed it and threw it to her, and spoke up. "You can get us into Limbo, that's all we need you to help us do. I can take Belasco down, for good. Now if you don't believe me..." He shifted into his Tailed Six Paths mode to prove that he could take the bastard down. He exerted just a but of his power and the room soon cracked at the release in power shocking Amanda at the display. "...I can make the devil bleed. And don't mistake that one damn bit."

* * *

-The Wastelands-

* * *

"I was six years old. Belasco took my soul apart piece by piece to form bloodstones. He took my innocent soul and twisted it, to use it as a sacrifice to the Elder Gods." Darkchylde continued with the ritual of ripping out Pixie's soul to create a Soulsword, while the young girl continued to scream in agony at the process. "When he had all five pieces of my soul, he would have the power to bring them to Earth. You and I, little Pixie...we will use your innocence against Belasco."

Everyone surrounding them soon began to struggle against their rock restraints and eventually the Susanoo disappeared shortly afterwards. He needed to conserve some of his chakra in the fight later one against Belasco to kill him. Granted he told them that there would be another way out of this, but since it was a demon that had done the deed rather than someone who could be reasoned with, unlike the Purifiers, his life was now forfeit, and if it came to it...Magik's as well...he just hoped that she could be reasoned with since she used to have a soul. Blindfold talked over to Naruto, "Excuse me, she cannot be trusted now. It is almost time. You must save her please."

Victor shouted out to Magik pleading with her to stop. "Megan! LET HER GO!"

Magik ignored the voices and continued with the monologing. "Innocence is power. And power is the Soulsword."

Pixie regretted the decision to give her soul up to save her friends. She should have listened to Naruto. "Please stop...it hurts!"

Magik closed her eyes at the young girls words. She could sympathize with the young girl, she truly did, as she too had felt the pain. "I know. I remember. The Soulsword is tour life, Megan. It is your soul forged into a weapon."

Blindfold spoke up again at what she was doing...what she desired..."She lies, yes. She wants the bloodstones. She wants their power. She is taking it all."

"With the Soulsword, your innocence can destroy. It can cut magic and make spells bleed. It can kill Belasco. With your soul, Pixie...I can kill Belasco." Soon the silhouette of sword started to materialize in between the two girls...the Soulsword was taking shape and would soon be finished.

Anole continued to shout and struggle against the rocks, managing to get loose a bit to maneuver out slowly, not only that he felt that his arm, the one he had thought that had been cut off, had suddenly emerged from his body like a lizard that lost its tail, though it appeared to be deformed and enlarged from its original form. Maybe Naruto had boosted its resilience when he was stopping the bleeding? Either way that wasn't the concern now; Megan was. He saw that some of the rocks nearby were starting to gather nearby and Naruto was beginning to charge up something to let loose, so he had to act first and punched Magik in the back, effectively stopping the ritual dead in its tracks. "NO!"

Darkchylde soon feel to the ground face first, hehehe...but she also dropped the amulet used in the ritual and there was only one bloodstone embedded in the amulet. The missing piece of Pixie's soul. Anole was panting after having to do that, he came close to doing some serious damage to her spine had he not have held back that last punch in her. "Please...just stop. Don't do this. Because I'll hurt you if I have to."

Pixie started to stir a bit after that ordeal, but slowly started to get her strength back, though she was holding onto an object for whatever reason. Naruto had just about had gathered enough chakra for what he needed to do. And just as he was about to do so...he felt the ground start to quake a bit, and the rocks began to form a bit behind them, while everyone else was oblivious to what was going on. Darkchylde got back up on her...hooves, feet, et...whatever you wanna call them, and started to get a very painful, and agonizing spell to shoot at the reptilian teenager. "You will suffer for..." But a voice started to breakout over everyone else's. "...get...get away..." Darkchylde turned behind her to see that the rocks were forming into that of a very familiar golem figure..."What...?!"

Rockslide had apparently been alive the whole time, but he needed time to reform himself, luckily there was plenty of material for him to use, and it gave him one hell of a makeover. He now had lava spouting from the cracks in the rocks and he looked pissed the hell off, not judging from just his appearance, but also his words. "YOU GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!" The Darkchylde was actually a little surprised that he was able to do this as well as other people too. "Santo?!" Anole was really surprised.

Santo saw the whole thing, and he was gonna kill this chick, even though she was a little hot to say the least._ 'Finally! I am gonna kick this bitch's ass so hard, and then I'm definitely gonna get one hell of a rep and a story to tell. Maybe I can get a book deal too?'_ But then suddenly his dream was crushed as a massive shadow covered them all and what they saw, or rather what the Darkchylde saw scared her to death, going off of her facial expression. Never before had she felt such fear and belittlement in her life. A massive orange furry nine-tailed fox let loose a roar so loud that it threatened to break their ear drums. **"GRRRAAAAUUR!"** She liked it to almost being an Elder God...one of the things she feared.

It was one thing to see a memory of the Tailed Beast, but to see it with their own eyes, and feel the raw power coming off of it, Anole felt like an ocean had just been dropped on them, and they were slowly sinking to the bottom, he used the distraction as an opportunity to check on Megan and ran over to her downed form. "MEGAN! MEGAN!" He picked her up off her back and helped her wake up due to the after effects of the ritual. "Megan, pleas tell me you're ok!"

"I'm...I'm..." Then she saw what his arm looked like and got creeper the hell out by it. "Oh, gross! Victor, what happened to your arm? Did Naruto make it like that?" He ignored the question and was more concerned for his friend and her soul. "Megan! What about your..." That's when she pulled up the object that she was still firmly holding on to...a weapon of sorts that had an ethereal glow to it...a dagger. "My soul?"

Darkchylde...well, when a giant nine-tailed fox that could kill you just by stepping on you. You don't have a lot of options, so she reacts in fear and shot some of her magic towards its body...and it didn't do shit, except make it laugh from the attempt. **"Hahahaha! What was that? A bug bite? I must say, after all that talk and the threats of death, I expected more from one like you...buy you're just a weak little brat. Now why don't you get us into this castle and we can get to killing your former master."** Kurama had a lot more of his power at his disposal if he were to be summoned directly outside, rather than have Naruto go into Tailed Beast Mode, plus he rarely got out like this and he wanted to enjoy some fresh air...although he would rather be breathing Earth air, rather than the crap down in hell. He then put his paw down on Darkchylde and watched her struggle to get out, while Naruto slid down off of Kurama's head to get an answer out of the girl. "Alright since you don't really have a lot of options, why don't you take us to the castle were our friends at being tortured. You should be lucky that Vic stopped what you were doing, other wise...well, let's just say we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. So, what's your answer?"

She stopped struggling against the weight of the paw keeping her pinned down. "I...I can't. He sealed his castle from me...my powers my magic...I can't." But then all of a sudden, her entire demeanor changed into that of a lonely little girl. "Who...who are you? Where's Kitty? Where are Dani and Sam? Please...where is my brother?"

Everyone practically stared at her in disbelief in the change in personality of Darkchylde, it seemed the old Magik was still in her, but very deep and weak. Kurama summed up what everyone was thinking.** "...What the fuck...?"**

* * *

-Belasco's Castle-

* * *

He was nearing his limit. Belasco was getting impatient, let it not be known that Belasco was not without mercy...though these brats were really pushing it. **"RRRRRAAAA! ENOUGH!"** He tossed Dust aside like a rag doll and grabbed Mercury by her throat and demanded that she tell the truth. **"I sensed her. I saw her. Alive. On Earth. And I can smell her on you! You were with her. And I will not hear your lies!"** He tightened his grip on the metallic girl's throat and she was able to catch her breath to speak. "What do...you even want with her?"

**"Her soul belongs to **_**me**_**, and you will tell me where to find her! Say it!"**

Mercury was about to tell him go fuck off, but then she caught the sight behind him, and stalled the bastard out. She knew if she said the form then things wouldn't go very smoothly. "No, I...yes, I was with her...with...Illyana. She's alive. We're...we're hiding her."

**"Where? Where is...AAAARARRGHHH!"** But then all of a sudden, his throat began to swell and his breath hitched in the back of his throat as he realized that the healer had given him massive infections and he apologized to the demon for a stupid reason. "I'm sorry." If anything, he should be glad that the bastard was choking for dear life...for the moment. He collapsed to the ground for the time being with a couple of teens standing over him. Mercury was in astonishment, while Dust was in disbelief if what Josh did. "Josh...Josh, you did it..."

"Are you guys ok? Do you need me to..."

"No...this is not right. You cannot kill the devil." She knew it to be true, as he would exist as long as Allah would. Suddenly the area that they were standing in had suddenly burst into a bright light...the demon lord was not amused by their attempt to kill him.

* * *

-Germany-

* * *

Naruto was able to talk Amanda into getting them into Limbo and she was able to create a diagram with her now fully replenished magics and the O*N*E called in the heavy duty Sentinel Megaton to help out with the rescue. As Amanda was chanting the words and channeling her power into the diagram, Surge pulled the NaruClone aside to talk with 'him' about what he did previously. "Hey, I need to talk to you about what you did with Laura."

Naruto probably should have talked with her about this, but several tho gs got in his way...well, might as well get things out of the way...though he knew odds were he'd get punched in the face at the end of the conversation. "Alright...go ahead..." He closed his eyes in acceptance of his cruel and ill fate of being a human punching bag. Surge looked at him like he was an absolute idiot and she was confused at what he meant..."Wha..er, what the hell dude? Did you think I was gonna punch you?"

Naruto looked at her wide eyed and honestly expected her to slug him one with a right hook, but she didn't...weird. He drops his hands and made motions with them as he talked out the reason. "Well...yeah...kinda, that's kinda how it ends up with me and conversations with women."

"You know, you could've told us that you and Laura went off looking for Cessily by yourselves, or at least left a note on one of your knives. I mean, yeah you easily could've done it yourself, but we also could've lost some friends that whole time!" She hated that they went off on their own with no one knowing where they were. It was the responsibility that she shared with him as leader, he should've had more backup and work as a team with the rest of them to rescue Cessily. Naruto did agree a bit with what she said but..."Sorry about that, but we didn't have a whole lot of time. If we did get other people in on it, then odds were we would've lost Cessily, and Laura knew these guys the best, so we could track her down faster in a small team."

"Yeah...I guess so, but just don't go off like that again without telling anyone, I should at least k know what you guys do also since you and me are the squad leaders." Surge took in what he said and it made sense as it started to click in her head with his logic, but it still worried her nonetheless, but now they just needed to focus on getting into Limbo. Buuuut...she had to do one last thing. "Hey, Naruto."

"Wha..." She punched the NaruClone right in the face...hehehe.

He was sent down right on his back and rubbing his face in pain, had it had been a year ago it would've dispelled immediately, but now they could take one hell of a beating and they dispelled on their own will or at the originals will. "WHAT THE HELL!? WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" He finally got up with his eyes bugged out, his face red and steam coming out of his ears while waving his hands up and down in pissed off manner. He was gritting his teeth at what his co-leader had just done. She, on the other hand had a smirk on her face while her arms were crossed and gave a smart ass response with an innocent tone. "What do you mean? You said that you normally get a punch in the face after a conversation with a girl, so I decided to keep it going. That's all."

"Grrrrr...razzin' frazzin'..." He hated that...really...some things change, while some things remain the same.

* * *

-The Wastelands-

* * *

"I remember. I remember my life with Piotr, then coming to the school. Belasco, the X-Men, the New Mutants...I remember the dark times...the Inferno. Then nothing." Illyana, or rather her dark self had begun to calm down and she told them the life she lived. Kurama had taken his massive paw off of her so that she was able to breath properly. I mean having a giant ass fox that weighed tons put pressure on you, was killer on the lungs. "When Belasco took back Limbo, he used his magics to summon me...pulling to him every bit of my essence, every memory he could find. I appeared before him...but my soul was missing. Instead of Illyana, Belasco got Darkchylde instead."

"That's fucked up. If you went to church would you catch on fire?"

Kurama 'flicked' Rockslide on the back of the head that just sent him face first into the ground. **"Idiot...he wanted her soul, not her body or mind. **_**That's**_** what demons like him get off of, the soul."** He had a few encounters back in the Elemental Nations with a few demons before the villages starts to go after him, and saw that the souls of the living is what gave them power and sustained them. One actually tried to get his soul...he wasn't in a living condition afterwards if you catch his drift. Magik nodded a what the fox said. "Yes, he wants everything that I once was...and I'm going to kill him before he gets it."

Naruto felt sorry for what had happened to this girl. She had every bit of happiness in the world...and then so suddenly in her early age, it was all taken away. She had lost her soul, died, and then reborn without any shred of her old self that she yearns for. He caught a small tear that had dropped from her left eye and soon evaporated from the heat of the landscape. _'So she does still have some humanity left in her after all...'_, he thought to himself. "Do you know how where the castle is? 'Cuase the two of us can probably get us there pretty quickly." He pointed to himself and Kurama. The plan was basically point and run like hell whilst carrying everyone on Kurama's back. Magik however knew what he was getting at and shot the plan down. "We'd be too late to save them. And I can't get into Belasco's castle since he banished me. But the girl...Pixie can. The creation of the Bloodstone has made a hole in her soul, which was filled with black magic. And she has a Soulsword now...of sorts." She never expected an interruption during the ritual and she never believed that doing so would cancel out the Soulsword, though now it seems she was proven wrong with what she saw now.

Pixie couldn't believe it. She was evil now! What the fuck?! "A hole in my soul...OhMiGod! I'm evil now! You turned me evil! You bi..." She covered her mouth in shock. She had never used a cuss word in her entire life! Even Anole was a little shocked at what happened. "Whoa! Megan!"

Naruto shook his head at the girls antics to release her anger without swearing. "Ok, since hauling ass won't work. How is she..." He pointed to Megan. "...gonna be able to get us in the castle in time?" He had a feeling it had something to do with teleporting..."I can teach her a spell...a teleportation spell." Yep. He knew it.

* * *

-Belasco's Castle-

* * *

**"I don't care about you children. I don't care if you live or die. But I will kill each and every one of you until you tell me where Illyana Rasputin is."** He was tired and pissed...seriously he hadn't even been able to sleep in like 58 hours...and let me tell ya, that can make a guy go really insane...though Belasco is rather already insane, so sleep wouldn't do him any good anyway. The teens were trying to recover from Belasco's outburst at basically getting cancer from a kid, it felt like crap, but he dispersed it with his magic and killed it off. The demons were were drooling at their suffering and agony, they wanted in on it, but they couldn't or they would be reduced to ash by their master.

Belasco began to channel his magic outwards towards X-23's bones. Dust was confused at what the demon lord was doing, "What...what is he..." and she soon had an answer.

**"This is what awaits you. Come back to me abomination."** He needed an example, and what best example to use, was the one that had already been killed. He soon brought X-23 back from the dead and had herself reform back into her body right before he had disintegrated her flesh and clothes...thank everything that was good and pure, otherwise the teenage guys would've had some serious nosebleeds. She was unconscious after the ordeal and Belasco grabbed her by the hair and pulled he rout to the side and sported a sadistic smile. **"This can last as long as you wish. Time has no meaning here. But pain and suffering do."** He threw her out into the open courtyard and used his magics to summon massive spikes that impaled her through the gut, leaving the teens wide eyed and shocked at her now bloodied body. "LAURA!

This was it for them, they felt. **"I will kill each and every one of you then bring you back to life and kill you again until you tell me what I want to know. And if you don't..."** Pause for effect...**"I will pull all of Earth into Limbo to find her."** BUM! BUM! BUUUUUMMM!

* * *

-Just outside the castle-

* * *

Amanda had managed to get them just outside of Belasco's castle and as close as possible. She would have gotten them right outside, but I seemed that the old/new Limbo lord had thrown up a barrier to keep any unwanted guests out and not disturb him. Lex had just done a sit-rep for them. "We just lost contact with O*N*E command Ms Sefton. Is this..."

"We've crossed over into Limbo. Your Sentinel only works here because of my magics. And Lex? There's a good chance we're gong to die here. My name's Amanda." Though what that boy had done to her, made her strong as she once was, it peeked her curiosity on how he was able to do so. Lex tested out the comm systems on the Sentinel to see if the three teens where still with them. _"Ronin, Surge, Hellion...do you copy?"_

"We're here, still."

"Yup."

"I can't see for crap. This is Limbo? Weird." Hellion was keeping himself and Surge levitated with his TK, while NaruClone was in his Tailed Six Paths form that was giving him the ability to fly. The air was clouded with a lotta dust and kept their vision obscured. The NaruClone could see pretty clearly thanks to his own visual prowess. "I can see stuff just fine actually."

"Lucky bastard..." Hellion murmured to himself.

Lex turned on the Sentinel's flood lights to give them some better vision so nothing could sneak up on them. Amanda clarified that matters of the legitimacy of this place being Limbo. "My spell should have synced up time...they've only been here for a fee hours now, not years."

_"Years?! Are you serious?"_ NaruClone found it to be a rather surprising that time could go by so quickly in another dimension. He just assumed that every dimension ran on the same time or something like that. "We should be right outside the castle. I couldn't get us in though. Belasco must've placed a spell to keep certain intruders from getting in."

Surge turned to the NaruClone hoping he could see it. "Hey, Naruto do you see it?"

"Yeah, it's a bit a ways from us and it's on top of some giant ass rock." But then his eyes widened at what was coming out of the castle. "Uhhh, guys...we got a problem."

Lex then saw the multiple hostiles popping on his radar. "Nori...I'm picking something up. Oh, God. Are you seeing this?" They were completely surrounded.

_"Yeah, we see it."_ A lot of bat like demons came pouring out of the castle and other manner of demons came spurting out of the ground. The NaruClone could feel the massive killing intent from each and every one of them. _'Man, these guys must really be some fucked up dudes. There's some crazy crap going on in their heads.' _Naruto got ready to thrown down with the demons, but then he heard Shukaku speaking up in his head. **"Hey! Lemme outta here! I wanna kill them! I finally got big again!" **Weeeeellll, the Tanuki did happen to still be psychotic and loved to slaughter, and given their current circumstances, there was no guarantee the Sentinel was gonna make it on its own. _'Alright, go wild. But just kill these things, nothing else.'_

**"Yes!"**

The NaruClone formed the hand signs: Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram. "Summoning Jutsu." Then the massive sandy Tanuki was bought out by a puff of smoke startling the demons and the humanoid beings except Naruto. Amanda had her jaw hanging down as low as it could go and her eyes threatened to bulge out, and Lex couldn't even move from the shock of what he was seeing. He had to stop drinking...

Shukaku let out a massive breath and was filled with exhilaration. It felt good to be outside again, but he'd rather be on Earth instead of being down in Hell. He looked around to all the demons now staring at him with wide eyes and weren't sure what to feel now that this massive being appeared out of nowhere, but then their bodies suddenly started to shake and sweat as Shukaku eyed them all like a predator to prey, curving his mouth into a sadistic smile and chuckled rather darkly. **"WOOHOOO! It feels great to be outside again, now who to kill...? Eeny, meeny, miney, moe!" **Shukaku then slammed his tail down on the horde in front of him and started to gather chakra in his throat, to let out several massive Air Bullets. **"Wind Style: Air Bullets!"** He let loose the jutsu from his massive maw and the demons were soon torn to shreds with many of them retreating back to the castle and others into the Wastelands, thinking he wouldn't follow them...but when its Shukaku, _you_ sir...are quite wrong... **"WEEEEEE! HEY WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU GUYS ARE GOIN' HUH? THE FUN'S JUST GETTING STARTED!"** Shukaku started to just pummel the crap out of them and the demons were flattened as he charged towards the castle. Overkill is clearly something not in Shukaku's dictionary...

* * *

-The Wastelands-

* * *

"You have _got_ to be kidding me. This is your big plan? Evil Illyana turns Pixie into Dark Pixie, teaches her a magic freaking spell, and then we go fight the Devil. I thought you were some kick ass ninja dude? What happened when you made that big ass plan when we took down Nimrod?" Santo was itching to kick some ass right now in his new lava form.

He felt the wind kick up a bit and saw that Kurama was getting ready to flick him back to the ground, and he flinched and stood on one leg while trying miserably to cover his whole body from the giant finger getting ready to strike. **"Stop being impatient idiot, and shut the hell up. Running there would take to long to save anyone, and the Flying Raijin requires an actual destination seal on one of the kids, which none of them have. So this is the only thing we've got right now."**

Blindfold was getting a little irked by Santo's impatience. "Kurama is right, excuse me. She will not fall. So, yes, please...shut up."

Pixie failed again...for the 12th time, and landed upside down in the air. "...sihal novarum chun..."

"No." This girl was trying her patience...it wasn't _that_ hard, seriously...what a pain in the hooves. "You are not trying hard enough! You should be able to do this without speaking!"

Now Pixie was getting annoyed be Magik. "This isn't even English! And there's a lot of words!" Oh, aaaannndd..."And you're mean!" Oh, yeah...it felt good, hehe.

"Again!"

"...sihal novarum chinoth..."

* * *

-Outside Belasco's Castle-

* * *

"I don't even know what the hell to do now..." Lex just sat in his chair trying to figure out what to do now that a giant animal had basically taken out 90%, if not 100% of the opposition. _"Uhmm...go on ahead guys and get in the castle. I guess I'll just sit right here and watch the door or something."_ Lex some over the exterior speakers of the Sentinel.

Naruto grabbed the two of them and the catapulted straight to the castle, while Shukaku was climbing up into it...wow, talk about dedication between a hunter and his prey.

* * *

-Inside the Castle-

* * *

The kids were barely clinging to life as it was right now. Belasco had had it, if one didn't give him an answer, then they were dead and useless to him. **"You dare lie to me?! You dare lay your hands on me?! I will find my apprentice, and you children will not deny me!"** Mercury pleaded with the demon lord in a vain attempt to try and spare her friends. "Just...just stop...we don't know where she is...please..." Trying to reform yourself while talking proved to be difficult. "...leave her alone..."

Belasco grabbed Dust out of the air and brought her up to his face and she felt the spit, and smelt the bad breath coming from his mouth...it ranked of rotting meat...**"The devout little girl. Don't you know that lying is a sin? And sins must be punished."** As he was about to deliver the final blow to the girl, a white streak just zoomed past him and snatched her right out of his hands. That tans it! **"No! NO! I will kill each and every..."** But his bitching got interrupted by a certain electric mutant.

"Belasco. Fry and burn you son of a bitch..." Surge let loose her electricity on Belasco's back and had him writhing in the newly found pain. **"AAAAARRRRGHHH!"**

"You killed David! You're going down asshole! Do you hear me?!"

**"I...think...not..."**

But then a green blast came down in him and slammed him down with such force it knocked the wind out of him and leaving the hell lord flabbergasted at what just happened. Hellion had let loose a massive TK blast down on Belasco rendering him paralyzed for a bit. He landed next to Surge and tried to hold her back from trying to kill the douchebag. "Surge stop! It's over!"

"Don't get in my way. He killed David."

The NaruClone waved over to them and shouted out to the two teens. "Yo! You mean _this_ David?" He pointed over to the boy who was helping him get the Cuckoos out of their iron helmets.

"David?" He saw that Belasco was now trying something when they took their eyes off of him and Naruto shouted out to them. "Nori! Watch out!" Belasco started to raise his hand in an attempt to blast the kids away so he could get his bearings. He stood up on his feet and now had Surge in his grip trying to get it of the choking grasp, while Hellion had a foot planeted on his face and was struggling to get out from under it. Now...he smelt some children he missed...**"You were with her! You were close to her, I can smell it!" ** He looked at the girl in his grasp and demanded an answer. **"Where is Magik?! Where is..."** He was cut off as he soon felt a massive force blow him away and planted him right in the wall from the boy clad in white. "Wind Style: Rasengan!" He didn't feel anything in his gut area, but he felt that his organs were now bleeding inside him, he didn't know what to make of what just happened a moment ago. He tried to heal his injuries, but he couldn't for some strange reason. Now he got a good look at the boy and saw his appearance...the raw power that was coming off of him and it felt as if he was looking at a fellow Hell Lord. Odd...**"You...how..dare you...brat..."**

"No. How dare you try to kill my friends." The NaruClone said darkly. Then he grabbed him by the throat, pulled him out of the wall and then threw him against a pillar near the Astonishing X-Men's containment spell, he coughed up some blood.

He was about to start casting a very deadly spell to kill the boy with...if he could, but then he saw three things. One: The boy disappeared in a puff of smoke that baffeld him as he felt no magic emanating from him. Two: A giant sand colored tanuki had just climbed over the castle walls and had every one of the demons he had sent out to deal with the intruders, scared shitless and fleeing in terror, even S'ym was a little shaky at the sight. He looked at the boss-man to see what they would do next. He was hoping that he'd get to kill the kids and then try to go all out on the psychotic animal, but then finally Belasco had managed to get up on his feet, and saw one last thing. The Darkchylde that he had brought out into existence had appeared with several others including the white clad boy, and massive nine-tailed fox creature in tow.

Now the demons were really scared, but they had no choice to obey whatever their master ordered. Rockslide's new appearance shocked the still conscious Mercury and Dust, and they shouted out to him in surprise. "Santo?!"

Belasco regained his footing and now was pissed off at the sight of _her..._** "You! How dare you come here?"** Then he turned to the original Naruto with hate in his eyes after what he did to him. **"And you! I will rip out your beating heart and tear you limb from limb brat, for what you did to me!"** Then he along with the fox and the tanuki started laughing at him. "Hahahahahahhah!" Naruto then wiped a tear from his eye...that was funny. "Yeah, right. Now then, let's get started." A predatory smiled crept up on his face as he said those words.

Belasco turned to S'ym, who looked a little unsure of himself and of his boss. **"Enough. S'ym...kill them all."**

_"Greeaatt..."_ He thought to himself as he and the rest of the horde charged on to the teens.

Then all hell broke loose...in hell..."Now it ends demon." Magik was the first to attack Belasco as she then coated her entire body in the metal sphere she had with her, and lunged straight at him. Shukaku and Kurama were demolishing the castle and the teens were going right at the demons, while Naruto was getting the telepaths out of their helmets and had swatted away a few demons coming right at them.

**"Hey! Watch who you're killing you damn Tanuki!"**

**"I know who I gotta kill you stupid Fox!"**

Ah, brotherly love...hehe. Anyway, Magik was flung back by Belasco as he shot right at her point blank, luckily the armor that coated her protected her, but she was still too weak to do anything. Pixie rushed over to see if she was alright. "Darkchylde! Are you ok?"

Her metallic armor began to peel off and then she looked to Pixie for more..."Pixie...I need more. I need more power...I need the rest of..." But she was cut off as Belasco unleashed a shockwave that sent a few of the kids flying back. He grabbed Magik by the face and was prepared to kill her on the spot for this insult. **"You are not fit to be in my presence! How dare you! I showed you mercy, I let you live, and this is how you repay me? Now I correct my mistake. Die."** Then all of a sudden he couldn't feel his left arm anymore, in fact...it had been cut clean off by Naruto. And he was holding the now lifeless arm in his hand, and he had the Executioner's Blade out, and dripping with blood dripping off the sharp edge. As soon as he was about to start ranting again, he found that X-23 had finally healed after being impaled in the gut severely, and had slashed his eyes out. Making him shout in excruciating pain. **"GGYYYEEEARRGGHH!"**

Naruto held up the severed arm and told him straight up. "This arm doesn't belong to you anymore." He tossed it up into the air and decided to destroy it for good, effectively crippling the demon lord. He looked straight at it, and decided to use a Jutsu he really wanted to use for a while now, but couldn't find a good occasion for it. "Ameterasu!" The arm was then consumed by black flame and was soon nothing but a pile of ashes.

"She was not your only mistake, you bastard." She was wiping some blood off of her face and had her claws out, ready to turn him into a pincushion, but they already had a better idea. "Alright, take him down." She spoke to the Cuckoos who now had their helmets off and then went all out with a psychic attack.

"Your helmets...we didn't like them." Seriously, let me tell ya, helmets like those on heads like theirs, it was a hair disaster if they stayed in them for too long. They dove into his mind and started to see what exactly he wanted from Illyana, despite him putting up a fight, they were the hivemind, nothing could could keep them out of any mind unless they were another telepath of high caliber or Naruto. "What do you want, devil man?"

**"AAARRGHH! HNNN! NO! GET OUT OF MY MIND!"**

"You kidnap the innocent...we can see them. Beatrce. Shanna. Illyana."

"But Illyana was special. You claimed her as a sacrifice, but you came to feel for her. You wanted her to be yours, body and soul."

"You lost her, just like the others."

"But with her, the loss cut deeper."

"The thought that she had returned...it was too much. You didn't even realize that what you saw wasn't real."

Belasco hung his head in shame, his most inner thoughts had now betrayed his hellish image.

"You couldn't find her. So you tried to recreate her."

"Her body...her mind...but it wasn't enough. You wanted more."

"You're not looking for her for revenge, or power..." Naruto realized what he was actually trying to do he did all of this..."You did all of this...tortured and killed us...because you love?" He honestly surprised by Belasco. He didn't think demons were even capable of having an ounce of love. But it seemed that Belasco's anger had reached it's boiling point, he started to try and channel his magics through his head as both of his arms were now indisposed and he was left in a very vulnerable state, and after having his so called 'love' revealed to his underlings, he had to save whatever dark reputation he had left. The girls were now clutching their heads in pain. "Celeste...Phoebe..."

"He's...too..."

"...strong."

**"RRRAAAA!"**

Soon he started lashing out with his power to try and kill someone after the light emanating from him began to arc and channel outwards in a shockwave. Naruto kept in and started to beat the crap out of him and saw that Belasco was healing rapidly from his blows, but he kept at it regardless. Kurama looked down at Pixie and spoke to her. **"Hey! Pixie brat! You're the only one that can kill him! Stab him or Earth will get sucked down in here!"** Pixie looked up to the giant fox and was trembling at what he just said and was scared to do it. She remembered what she was taught when she first came here. X-Men don't kill. There is always another way, but from what she learned from Naruto, is that sometimes there is no other way but _that_ way. "I-I don't know if I can!"

**"You have to! That dagger of your will end it all!"** Shukaku talked down to the girl. Honestly, if he could hold that dagger, then he'd have done it a long time ago, and end this shit.

Naruto then turned to shout at Pixie as he tried to use Gakido to absorb some of the dark magic to keep it from killing anyone. "Pixie! I know that killing someone isn't your way, but we don't have a choice! If you don't want to do it, then throw your dagger at me! I'll do it for you! You don't have to do it!"

Pixie looked down at the dagger in her hand and thought for a moment...she couldn't do it. She may have a hole in her soul, she may have the means to kill now, and she may be able to use black magic, but ultimately she couldn't do it. She couldn't kill. "Here Naruto! Catch!" She threw the Soul Dagger at Naruto who caught and drove the blade deep into Belasco's heart and ending the nightmare of Limbo for good...or so he thought.

Soon Belasco's magic spell that kept the X-Men in stasis had finally dropped them out into the palace courtyard and fatigued.

**"Guess our work is done here Tanuki."**

**"Ahhhh, it felt good to kill some things again. What a release..."** Both Tailed Beasts disappeared in a puff of smoke and had went back to Naruto who dropped his Tailed Six Paths Mode after stabbing Belasco. He took the Soul Dagger and walked back to Pixie to give it back to her. He soon found herself hugging him in thanks for him doing what she couldn't do. "Thank you..." A tear dropped from her eye at the thought of being forced to take a life. That wasn't her. "It's alright. You guys shouldn't have to kill to solve problems. But there wasn't any other way. I'm sorry that I couldn't stop Magik from ripping that part of your soul out." He could've done something to stop it, but he was too late when he tried to think of a way to both save his friends from hell torture, and stop Belasco without killing him.

Belasco felt the life leave him and he struggled to get up seeing as both if his arms were now gone and was practically a worm trying to work his way out of the ditch that he dug for himself. **"Hh...huk...nnoo..."** Magik soon began to make her way towards him and was prepared to deliver the final blow. Belasco looked up to her and pleaded with her, **"...you...I gave you...life...my child...comeback to me..."** She felt nothing but hatred for him, she brought up the amulet that she used to create Pixie's bloodstone. "You did...you gave me a life with no soul. A life of hellish torture. I've found the power to thank you for that. Look, father. I've made a bloodstone, just like you taught me."

This was not the Illyana Rasputin that he had abducted all those years ago. **"I will find her."** He spat out one last threat to his enemies, then Magik had just shut him the hell up, as she used her magics to completely obliterate her former master. "No. You won't." Belasco was no more...

Naruto approached her with a little bit of caution seeing as how she was still in a way, Darkchylde. "Hey, Magik. You alright?"

"Can we go home now?" Pixie really wanted to be back in her room watching boy bands on MTV. She also wanted her soul back too, she wanted to feel whole again.

Naruto saw that the demons were all now bowing to her and he feared that the just traded one Hell Lord for another. "Illyana..." Naruto was about to ask her what she would do next, but apparently he chose to use the wrong name, she turned to Naruto with anger and spat out at him. "Do not call me by that name! My name is..." But then she cut herself off completly in shock at the voice she just heard all of a sudden behind her. "Snowflake?" Her face contorted to one of surprise and shame.

Colossus had come out of the rubble and heard a voice he thought he would never hear again in his life. He knew it was her...his sister...Illyana had come back, he knew it! It had to be her! "Snowflake, can that be you?" But her appearance was different from what he remembered, he need to know...

Magik looked down with her face just as set as before. "Piotr..."

"Have you returned to me?" Colossus reached out to try and take a look at her face to see the truth. Shadowcat had come up behind him warning caution to her boyfriend. "Peter...be careful..."

"Please, tell me the truth...Illyana, is this you?" She was about to stare into her brothers face to his own familiar face...but she couldn't do it, she was ashamed to look at him in her current form. "NO!" She violently jerked her head away to keep him from seeing her. "DO NOT LOOK AT ME!" She channels her magics to teleport everything and everyone back to the mortal plane and out of Limbo. "All of you, just go away!"

Everyone started to panic at what was happening, Pixie tried to talk about her soul that Magik had ripped the piece out of her. "Hey! Hey! What about my soul! What about wh..." Peter tried to talk to his sister to come back and for them to help her. "Don't do this! Let me help you! Let me..." Naruto tried to to do the same thing. "Wait! You don't have to do this alone! We can hel..."

"Good-bye, brother. And you Naruto where kind to me."

* * *

_-Flashback; the Wastelands before Belasco's Castle was sieged-_

* * *

_Naruto approached Magik from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention while Pixie was still trying to get the spell down."Hey, I wanted to talk to you for a bit before we get to the castle."_

_She turned to him and was a little irritated at him interrupting her teaching. "So talk."_

_Naruto took his hand off her shoulder and spoke up to her, trying to see if she wanted what he thought she wanted. "Your soul. It was ripped from you when you were still way to young to be involved with stuff like this. You were tortured and forced to do things you didn't want to do, and you're still suffering and you want revenge on Belasco." Magik turned away and her lips started to tremble a bit and a few tears threatened to break loose as she listened to his words. She wondered if he himself had suffered as she did._

_"But on the inside, deep down, you still want to be with your brother, and you want your soul back." Naruto paused for a bit as he saw that the students were talking to themselves and Kurama was catching a quick nap before he started to the slaughtering of demons. "And when the time comes...I'll help you get your soul back." That made her turn to him wide eyed, as she was caught off guard completely by what he just said._

_"Wh-why?"_

_"Because, you suffered through a lot, and I want to help you end it. You can be with your brother again. Don't you want that?"_

_Magik turned back to Pixie as she was still having trouble with the spell and thought to herself, she would regain her soul one day, and with his help, it would be much easier than she originally expected. "Thank you." She wiped the tears that had started to break and returned to her angry and dark self and berated Pixie for her pitiful talent at Black Magic. "No. You are not trying hard enough!"_

* * *

-Now; the Institute-

* * *

"like it never happened. The entire building is fine" Vic and Megan were trying to relax in the common room, despite this being the last place that had shit go down...literally, after getting back from Limbo. "Trance woke up once her body got back to Earth. I guess Colossus wanted to go back for Darkchylde, but Amanda Sefton said Limbo had been sealed off. Rockslide's still made of Limbo-Rock. And my new arm itches."

Pixie felt worse though. "My soul itches."

"...touché."

Naruto walked in to see how Pixie the two were doing seeing as how they both tool major wounds, physical and spiritual. "Hey, you guys alright?"

"Yeah, we're alright aside from well, you know." Vic held his arm up while Pixie shifted around in the sofa. Having a piece of one's soul ripped out was something that scars you for life. Naruto felt responsible for what happened to them, and he wanted to try and to help out so..."Well, me and Santo talked it over with Slim, and now you guys are on the team! Ya'll deserve it 'tebayo."

The two newly minted New X-Men smiled at his words, and Pixie decided to hug him to death. "Thanks for saving us all down there." Now he was getting the life squeezed out of him and was struggling to speak. "Well...we all...did it..it was a...team effort...can you stop squishing me now please?"

"Nope!"

_**'You do know that you made a deal with the devil in a sense now, right?'**_

_'Yeah, I know but...I'm not gonna stand by and let someone suffer for when they had something forced on them.'_ Though now, he had a feeling he was going to regret saying that to Illyana.

* * *

-Limbo-

* * *

"Achoo!" Magik sneezed out randomly and was now the Lord, Lordess, or Lady of Limbo now that Belasco was dead. S'ym now served her and was loyal to the ruler of Limbo, and N'astirh was alongside him.

"Well, Boss...what now?" He had a feeling that she had an agenda after killing Belasco.

Magik made ethereal faces of Shadowcat, Colossus and Naruto, and put them out, after a moments thought. "Now, S'ym? Now I get my soul back." She had a devilish grin on her face and now she knew that she would be owed by that boy when the time came.

* * *

**And done! Wow, ok I really had some trouble with this chapter as I wanted to give Kurama some of the action as well and I recently started college back up again, so I won't have as much time to update as I used to. But hey, that's life for ya. Next: Children of the X-Men and then World War Hulk, before Messiah CompleX. Continue to read, favorite, follow and review (no flames please as they will be deleted). And be sure to swing by my profile to vote on the poll, until next time see ya :) !**


	15. Chapter 14: Children of the X-Men

_**Damn, life gets in the way sometimes, well here is the new chapter and a few things will be hinted at in this chapter. Enjoy :). Also, I don't own Naruto or Marvel for that matter, but I wish I did.**_

* * *

Chapter 14: Children of the X-Men

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

The staff was having a meeting on determining how they needed to handle teaching the New X-Men as they've proven just how string and talented they were after their exploits. "...defeated Nimrod, saved one of their own from the Facility, and now, saved us from Belasco. All since M-Day." Cyclops had just listed off the things that they had just done, something's even they couldn't succeed in doing.

"Hell, we should just retire now. Maybe shoot the kids into space, let them deal with Vulcan." He was getting old anyways.

Emma rolled her eyes at Logan's antics. "Logan, your sensitivity is staggering."

"Hey, just sayin'. Ninja kid prolly won't mind goin' up to see mini-red again." He smirked at that, he saw that last little tease Rachel left Naruto with before she left.

"All things aside Logan. There are twenty-five students not counting Naruto, at the Institute. That's now about one-eighth the mutant population in the world, right here. And we've failed them in every way possible. We haven't protected them, we don't even know them. Naruto has been doing our job for us, when we _should_ be doing just that. We shouldn't have put things on their shoulders this early in their lives. We don't even know our students now. That ends today. Their protection is imperative. Because everything Hank said is true...they could well be the last generation of X-Men."

Logan had to take a second look at the picture that he held up of the lava golem. "I didn't know we had a lava kid." Which was weird, he knew each of the kids as he sometimes had to put their ass down in the Danger Room to show that they weren't all that.

So Hank interjected at his statement/kinda-sorta-question. "That's Rockslide. I'm still trying to figure that one out."

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

Naruto had been down with several of the students healing them up after the Limbo torture, and decided to try and get some alone time for himself, although he wanted to continue on in the White Room talking with Jean. She was actually rather cheerful and nice to him, though he had a feeling that she wasn't just telling him about herself and the X-Men's past history just to entertain him. Odds were, she wanted him to be aware of these things in the event that they came back to haunt them. And judging from the way things were going for them: Stryker, Nimrod, Belasco; it was bound to happen. Though she eventually began to tell him about the Inferno event. Something that he had quite a bit of interest in after she told him.

* * *

_-Flashback; White Hot Room, a few days ago-_

* * *

_"This part of my life actually began to affect me a bit in a negative way, to the point where I wanted to kill one of our enemies." Jean had told him about their mission to space and how the Phoenix force had taken her place for a time, and eventually killed itself because it began to love her friends, and how part of it contributed to her wanting to kill someone._

_Naruto found that rather surprising. She had told him that she so heartedly believed that there is always another way to solving a problem without killing someone, like himself in a way, thought what she said next had him paying heavy attention. "Eventually, someone like Orochimaru had revealed themselves, and had lead to our own 'Madara'. His name was Nathaniel Essex, but he goes by Mr Sinister, and he wanted to create the..." She brought up her hands and made quoting marks as she said the next couple of words. "...'perfect mutant' for whatever reason, and he created a clone of me."_

_"Wait, wait, wait." Naruto was making motions for her to try and make some sense of what she just said. "He made like a Shadow Clone you? How did that work? How did he even create it?"_

_Jean waved over to the side and an image appeared of Cyclops along with...herself? That was weird. Why did she..."He created a clone from my own cells so that eventually she'd give birth to a mutant that he could use for his own ends. She doesn't disperse like your own, but rather she was completely created similar to how any natural person is born, but it happened in a lab. She had only had that purpose, and Sinister tried to kill her after she gave birth, but he failed." Naruto saw a man with a sickly pale face, red eyes, a mark on his forehead similar to Sakura and Tsunade's medical jutsu seal, black clothes and a cape that looked like it had been through a cheese grater. He already hated this guy just from one look at him. "This is Sinister. He was the one who had been watching me and Scott since we were young. He took particular interest in the two of us because we supposedly had the 'purest' mutant DNA, and he created her from me when people thought that I had died." _

_Naruto saw that she really was an exact clone of Jean, he now saw why she said that Sinister was like Orochimaru, but how did the clone of Jean become similar to Madara? "When I woke up from the bottom of the bay, the Fantastic Four found me and eventually I was able to find my friends again and we formed X-Factor; a separate little thing from the X-Men for a time with Scott, Hank, Bobby and Warren."_

_The scene changed again to a desolate desert with lone man mediating on a cliffside. "When we thought the X-Men had died on national television, we had to do more in the country to keep things going, but we didn't know that they had survived with Madelyne Pryor. My clone. She helped the X-Men in monitoring the world and anything she could do to be useful to them." He saw the X-Men at the time working in some sort of bunker after exiting a portal from the man on the Cliffside. He saw Madelyne working at an array of computers set up with large screens and had multiple media networks on them."And that's when she saw me standing with Scott. He had completely left her and their son, just to see if I was alive." _

_Naruto couldn't believe that Cyclops had done that! "He just up and left without explaining to his wife that you were alive?! What the hell was wrong with him?!" He began to think a little less of the man now after hearing that._

_Jean spoke at the ninja's words. "Yes. While Scott is...and in a way still is, a good person, he has made terrible mistakes in the past." She looked a ways a bit from Naruto, though he caught on to the way she said it. He clearly made a very...very big mistake with Jean, though he more than likely wouldn't find out until later when she decided to tell him. She looked back towards him and continued on. "Eventually like Madara, who's love turned into hatred, so did Madelyne's. Her love for Scott began to turn into hatred for him, but most especially me. She blamed me for her tragedies and for the loss of life she had suffered from Sinister's manipulations. She made a deal with the demon N'astirh and S'ym. Both of whom you've already met." He saw the demons that served Magik and Belasco down in Limbo, and knew now who were the ones that caused this. "In turn for getting revenge, she would create a portal that would bridge Earth and Limbo together for eternity, but a sacrifice was needed. She was going to sacrifice Nathan, her own child...just to spite Scott in disgust."_

_Naruto couldn't find the words to describe what he was feeling right now. There weren't any...never had he ever heard something so cruel and horrific. So he asked her, "How did everything end...?"_

_Jean looked down for a bit, remembering what happened six and a half years ago. "We were able to kill N'astrih, and stop the demons from pouring through the portal to Limbo, but Madelyne had already grown powerful enough to keep New York looking like hell had been brought up to it, which it really had. She had me cornered and we engaged in a psychic battle. I pleaded with her to let Nathan go, but she continued to blame me and Sinister for what was happening. She showed me the truth behind her creation and purpose. She tried in one final attempt to kill me, she killed herself to try and drag my mind down with her."_

_Wow...just wow. Naruto couldn't believe that someone was so bent on revenge and had such hatred to kill themselves to kill someone else. Granted, Sasuke said he didn't care what happened to himself after he killed Itachi, but still...he was never that deep into his revenge and hatred enough to kill a newborn baby. "Did anything happen to Nathan afterwards?" He was curious if he remembered anything of the event, though it was odd. He never saw a kid around 5-6 years old at all around the school, so what happened to him? "He's still alive and well, but you'll meet him eventually, maybe sooner than expected. After Madelyne killed herself, things began to turn back to normal, but it seemed since a part of my consciousness gave Madelyne life, it came back to me, and her hatred of Sinister came back with it too. I began to develop very dark emotions when it came to dealing with him. He needed to die, and despite how I sound like a hypocrite, he was someone too dangerous to leave alive, he needed to be stopped permanently. We found out that he had been hiding in the old Institute along with a few of the Marauders and they fought back. We were cornered but we came through and we killed Sinister...or so we thought. It was then I learned that sometimes, bur very rarely, you have to cross the line that separates us from them." She had finished with telling him the Inferno that threatened to engulf the world._

_Naruto sat back into the chair that she had made in the room for them and took in all of the information from she told him about the events. He kept on pondering a few things, but there was probably one above all the others he had thought. He looked back at Jean, and asked her just two questions. "Do you think that somehow...just maybe, Maddie still loved Cyclops? Do you think there was any hope for her?"_

_Jean was a little surprised at what he asked of her. "To be honest, I don't really know if she did, even after what had happened, she returned when Nate Grey, a person not unlike yourself who came from an alternate reality, had brought her back in a way. The two of them began to have an odd relationship, and it seemed that she had a new chance to start over..." A new image appeared of several people dressed in some old fashion clothes for the men, and some women were scantly clad in what looked like what women would wear in brothels back in his reality, less so than what Emma would wear as her X-Uniform. "...but the Hellfire Club had taken that away from her as well, and possibly any chance of happiness was torn away. They used her, and turned her back towards evil, and she hated being used once more."_

_Naruto felt almost sad for Maddie, she was a victim of other peoples machinations and plans, just he, Sasuke, Obito, Nagato and so many other people. It wasn't fair..."Thank you for telling me this, but why this specifically? You skipped over about a few years or so of other things. Why go out of order?"_

_Jean smiled a bit at him and simply shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. But I do have one last question for you. Have you heard the phrase 'Visions come to prepared spirits'?"_

_Naruto raised a brow at that. "Ummm…not really, why?"_

"_It means, that you need to prepare for what comes next." Soon a vision of a massive flaming bird came to his mind, along with the girl in the v patterned outfit in front of it, letting out a painful cry on a rocky surface. She tapped on his forehead and sent him back out of the room, she did have a game to continue with her new friend after all._

* * *

-Now-

* * *

Naruto wanted to try and talk to Maddie if the chance rose up, to see if there was anything left of the woman that she once was before meeting the X-Men, he was about to get back in until he heard a knock on his door.

"Hey, Naruto. How old are you?"

Naruto turned around to see that it was Cessily in her regular clothes and a baseball cap along with a notepad and a pen in hand. "I'm seventeen, but why're you asking that for?" He was kinda immortal now, though he didn't know if he could still die by the usual methods of death like disembowelment, blood loss, intense trauma, etc.

"Matt Landru. I went to the Landru funeral with Laura, and it made me realize…with no more mutants emerging, being born, whatever…some mutant somewhere is the youngest mutant on the planet. And statistically speaking…it's probably one of us."

"Ok, but why are asking me for my age? I'm not a mutant."

"True, but people think that you're a mutant, so this just helps keep up the appearance that you are one of us."

Naruto thought for a moment, and he did have to agree with her, a human with the X-Men did seem a little out of place, but a human who didn't exist up until a few weeks ago would certainly garner a lot of suspicion. "Makes sense. So how many numbers did you get?"

"Just a few, still have at least two-thirds of the school and whoever else is out in the world."

"Need some help? I've got a few extra hands."

"That would help speed things up a bit, though I hear that they have their own minds sometimes." Cessily heard that his clones had actually done some weird things….like play with sock puppets to reenact some scenes from that Icha Icha series, since a few of the women around the school had become fans of the series and he did it just for shits and giggles.

"Hey, sometimes we have our own minds."

"Yeah, that's if Boss has us doing something stupid."

"What the hell you guys?!" The real Naruto started to get a little ticked at his clone's words.

"Yeah, I'll take the help." Cess said, but then they heard a deep voice that Naruto instantly recognized.

"**Well, this is nice. I need stretch my legs for a bit, so to speak."** Turns out Kurama had swapped places with one of the clone's minds and was using it as a medium to act through. He was just leaning on a dresser nonchantly while looking at the others in the room.

Cessily already was a little spooked by this clone's voice and look. His voice was deep and his eyes were red and slitted. Along with that, the whisker marks were larger and more visible and his hair was more feral and his canines were showing a bit. "Woah. What's up with this one?"

"Kurama, what're you doing?" Naruto asked his tenant.

**"I wanted to get out a bit, since I don't like Hell, and my true form would obviously get attention, which is something we're trying to avoid."**

"Okaaaayy...can you make sure not to get on everyone's nerves while you're out and about?"

Cessily just fond the situation so odd..."This is weird."

Naruama just smirked a bit. **"I make no promises."**

"Seriously...?" Naruto just had a deadpanned expression on his face.

**"Ok! Fine...I won't screw with people...much..."**

"This is really weird..." She really had enough of weird mystical crap lately, so she just gave up on stuff like this.

"I guess that's the best answer I'm gonna get." Naruto turned to each of the clones and gave 'em their jobs. "Alright boys, go get some ages!"

"Right!" The clones said simultaneously and they each gave a salute and walked out the door, with Cessily. Though Kurama had decided to look around the place more with his own eyes. **"Ok let's see who to screw around with first...Frost, McCoy, Summers, so hard to choose...hehehe."**

* * *

-Game Room-

* * *

"For the last time, no! You cannot cut my other arm off!" Victor was trying to play some pool in silence, but ever since they came back from Limbo, Santo had been begging him to cut the other one off so it would match the new one that Naruto grew...and it was getting on his nerves. It was like Santo had some OCD or something, now he even was able to talk Laura into helping him cut the limb off, and she was being persistent as he was.

"Oh, come on dude! Beast said that it'd grow back, that it's part of your power. I mean Naruto actually made it even better, it's got like spikes on it and your skin's hard as iron now. We should do you legs, too! You'll turn into some kinda badass dragon dude! Seriously, you have to! X already agreed to do it, she said it wouldn't even hurt! Am I right?"

Laura was in her casual clothes that she had worn back down in Limbo, it was surprising that they hadn't been turned into rags considering that she had been skewered through the abdomen, but then again her shirt didn't cover her stomach up, but she digresses. "I would make the cut at the glenohumeral joint." She slashed a cue ball into bits with her claws as she continued. "It would be over quickly."

Vic took a second look at his pool cue to make sure it was straight. His shots were a little lousy right now, despite being harassed by his two friends. "Ok, both of you just back off! I liked my arm the way it was, and I'm keeping the one I've got left!"

Santo just wouldn't give up, so he tried to piss him off a bit to see if he'd go on ahead. "Oh, come on! You big pussy!"

Vic narrowed his eyes dangerously at Santo. Now he had very little patience. "What did you just call me?" Kurama had just walked into the room and saw that things were gonna go south...the perfect opportunity to screw with people. **"He called you a little pussy that needs to get laid, kid." **Kurama smirked a bit at the soon ensuing fight between the X-brats. Laura face palmed a bit at what he was trying to do it. "Oh, great. Just what we need right now..."

* * *

-Josh's Room-

* * *

"Yeah, I mean I didn't know that I could do that." Josh had been talking with Laurie over the phone after he got back from Limbo, he needed to talk to her, and hear her voice.

_"But you saved his life Josh, if it weren't for you, David would be dead. What you do is beautiful, and you shouldn't let what you did to Stryker affect you."_

"Yeah, but..." He stopped midsentence when he heard some knocking on his door. "...who is it?"

Turns out a NaruClone had come to the door. And stuck his head into his room. "Yo Josh, how old are you?"

"Ummm, 16. Why?"

"Oh, Cess and Boss are trying to see who's the youngest mutant on the planet, and who's gonna die soon." Josh paled a bit at his words.

* * *

-Cessily-

* * *

She decided to head to Julian's room to see if he knew anyone else's age, seeing as he dated a third of the girls around school. She knocked on the door to see if he was even in his room, since nothing was really happening today, thank God..."Julian? Hey, are you in there?"

"BOOOOM!" A massive telekinetic blast took down the whole door and part of the wall that Cess was standing in front of. "Julian?!" She stretched out back to see if he was alright...of course he would be, he was just being a dumbass with his powers with a...paperclip? "Ummm, should I even ask?" A NaruClone soon dashed around the corner seeing if it was an attack with chakra blades at the ready. "Whoa! Is everyone alright?!" He saw that no one was dead or dying so that was good...right? "Uhhh, what just happened?"

"Fucking McCoy and his fucking paper clip. I can't control my powers, Cess. Anything smaller than a refrigerator, and I can't deal with it." He had the paperclip suspended in the air, along with an annoyed scowl on his face. "And with Rachel still in space, I'm like the last telekinetic on the planet. Unless I want to join the Initiative and train with some idiot calling himself 'Justice'." Which no way in hell that was going to happen. Just a guy named Justice spelt stupidity.

Cess had a feeling he'd get it down, he usually did. "Come on, you'll get it...it's you, right?" Though she really needed to get back on track with her original thing. "Um, not to blow you off or anything, but do you know how old the Cuckoo's are?"

Julian stood up and turned to Cess after sitting down on the ground with that damn paperclip. "Old enough."

The NaruClone threw a piece of sheetrock at Julian for the perverted comment. "Ow!" He rubbed the side of his head where the chunk hit him. "Perv. I'm serious."

Julian was still rubbing his sore spot while thinking back at how old the girls really were. "They're two, I think. Artificially aged to 15. Long Story. Why you two asking?"

The NaruClone spoke up for the reason. "We're tryin' to see who's the youngest mutant left, and odds are they're gonna get killed pretty soon."

"Oh...right..." Julian felt a little awkward now, though he had an idea...

* * *

-Cerebra-

* * *

It was a little more simple tracking down every teenage mutant in the planet considering they were all prolly in the room, though there were a few left outside the school. "What about that one chick, the Pride's kid in LA...the Runaway? She's five or something." Julian asked.

"She's not registering on Cerebra." Celeste said, though there was someone else. "Angel Salvadore's child, Tito, is technically the youngest..."

"Gross, don't remind me. He doesn't count." Julian saw what he looked like and thought that he looked like something out of a B-rated sci-fi movie.

"Uhh, who's Tito?" The NaruClone was left out of the loop.

"Just some kid that had a bird and a fly for parents, and he looks really disgusting to be honest."

"Huh, that's...interesting." He didn't wanna sound like a hypocrite when it came to appearances since he wasn't one to judge.

Cessily though of another mutant, that most people knew already. "What about Franklin Richards? You know, the Fantastic Four's kid? Did he keep his powers?"

"What can he do?" Naruto asked.

"He can alter reality to a degree. Though he doesn't really use it that much. But he doesn't count. No one's gonna snipe Mr Fantastic's kid. He's prolly got his own TV show by now." Julian said. Though he was cut off by Cess. "Ms Frost is opening the door."

"Wonderful." The kids turned to the Headmistress as she was in a white business suit instead of her X-Uniform. "I'll overlook the fact that you're even in here for now." Cerebra was supposed to be off limits to the students even if school wasn't in session. "Cessily, Julian...I need to see you in my office. The senior staff is conducting interviews with the students."

* * *

-Outside with Beast and Colossus-

* * *

Beast asked Colossus to help him out with a little something with Santo to see how his new form worked. Colossus was checking his watch to see if he actually knew the time. "Are you sure he can tell time?"

Beast was writing down a few things he wanted to test out on Santo. "Not entirely."

Then they heard a crash through the window and looked up to the sight of a giant rock falling out of the window and Santo's voice screaming out in pain. "OWW! QUIT HITTING ME!"

"Ah, here he is now." Hank sidestepped without even looking when Vic came down with Santo crashing out of the window into the ground. Hey, he was a genius after all...

"I swear, I didn't know! Don't be so sensitive!"

"SHUT! UP!" Vic still wasn't finished with him, while Kurama leapt down from the window behind Hank and Pete. **"Huh, this wasn't as amusing as I thought it would be *sigh*, oh well."**

Hank and Pete turned to the deep voice behind them thinking an enemy had appeared, but they just saw a more feral looking Naruto, though Hank had already deduced why so. "Kurama, I assume?"

**"That's my name. Don't wear it out."**

"I'm guessing that you had swapped places with Naruto for the time being." More of a statement than a question really.

**"Yeah. And yes, before you ask, I got these two kids to start fighting, well more for my own amusement. The barrel was already there, I just cut the fuse short and lit the fire, hehe."**

"Yes, well, any chance you can put the fire out?" They turned to the small crater that Santo and Vic made when they crashed through the roof, with Santo _still_ getting his ass kicked by the smaller teen. **"Yeah, sure, whatever."**

* * *

-Five Minutes Later-

* * *

"Wait, you want me to blow up? Again?" He was confused now. Not that he isn't confused 90% of the time enough. Hank took a breath in knowing that Santo wouldn't be able to grasp the concept enough so he would have to endure.

Pete stood next to Hank with Vic and Kurama, whom the latter was snickering a bit with his hand covering his mouth. "My suspicion is that when Nimrod shattered you..." Hank began, "...he atomized most of your original body. You re-formed, but from actual rock."

"And?" He wasn't getting it...

"And I believe now technically a psychic entity, able to form and control a stone 'Golem', if you will."

"And?" Still not getting it...uggh...

"And your former ability to 'fire' off your limbs doesn't work with your new form...it's more destructive, a literal rock slide. So I want you to do it again, and see if you come back." That should clear things...hopefully...

Santo was actually hesitant in doing so and raised his hands in protest. "Wait, what? No way! What if I don't come back?" That's what he was really afraid of.

Though it looks like his explanation got through to the idiotic teen, so he pointed out the obvious. "You've done it already two other times now."

"Get out-a here, I'm never using my powers again!" Even if he had to sleep on a flaming mattress given his new rocks, it was something he'd figure out...eventually...

Though Kurama once again saw an opportunity...**"Pussy."**...and he took it. Hank and Vic darted behind Pete as the knew the inevitable would come.

"Alright, ya stupid fox! I'm taking you down!" That's when Santo had exploded, both figuratively and literally. Kurama just stood there and took the explosion head on and received no damage as he just cloaked himself in some of his chakra for a bit to avoid any burns or cuts from the Limbo rock.

"Thank you Kurama." Hank thanked the being of chakra.

"**No problem. Getting under people's skins is what I do."**

"This is what you brought me for?" Pete felt, well…the words just weren't coming to him to describe how he was feeling right now, oh well. Now Santo had pretty much went off like a bomb and had made a smoldering patch out on the lawn, though nothing Naruto couldn't fix with a little Wood Style here and there. Hank stepped out from behind Pete and walked over to the seared patch of ground where Santo once stood and spoke loudly. "Santo? If you can hear me, concentrate! Try to feel the Earth around you, and pull yourself together." The ground began to rumble a bit and rocks began to form around the are back into a humanoid form, so now Santo was made up of normal Earth, instead of sulfur smelling rock from Hell. "…gonna pound you into the…hey! I did it!" Ta-da! He has done it feels folks! What a genius….hehe, yeah right… "It was just like in Limbo…I could hear you, I could see…like I was just floating there…"

"Yes, well done Santo." He really meant it since he knew how low Santo's intelligence was. "Now, I'd like to see how you do re-forming when someone else shatters you…"

"What?!" He was kidding right?!

Vic, volunteered immediately with a grin on his face. "OOO! OOO! Me!" Kurama stepped up and spoke to Hank. **"Why I'd be happy to do so."** He flashed a grin with his canines gleaming in the sunlight. It sent a shiver down everyone's spines at what he could do in Naruto's body. Though he saw their reaction's and calmed them down. **"I'm not going to level a mountain, sheesh…I'm just gonna to get a few good hits in."** Well, at least everyone else except Santo were a little more at ease.

* * *

-Xorn's Hideout-

* * *

Xorn sat down in a chair where there were nine others surrounding a long table with Magus occupying one of them. Xorn had been detailing the future members that would be joining them as he already had Magus and the other two that would contact him via quantum time entanglement comm systems, something that he had devised for them to speak to him and keep every type of sensing equipment off their backs as they spoke. Now they had six more seats to fill, and he already knew who he would approach first.

"So, have you located the other members?" Xorn asked Magus as he was gathering more intel for Xorn as he knew much already, but not everything.

"Yes. I have." Magus brought up a holographic screen with the other members faces, locations and status via real time.

"They're each where you predicted and they're continuing with their own personal goals." Magus brought up the first face. "She is currently in San Francisco gathering idiotic followers and enthralling them with Mutant hate to cloak her actual movements as the one called Empath is acting as a booster for her self."

The second face came up afterwards. "She already has two other followers for her Inner Circle and has now acquired Senyaka. More than likely she will look for one or two more members."

The third face came up. "He is currently with Sinister and the Marauder's along with the Acolytes that followed him. On a separate note, I've also found each and every one of Sinister's labs and we now have access without his knowledge to the labs. So we'll know where he'll be at all times."

Xorn nodded in appreciation, and he needed to know where Sinister was considering one of his members would certainly want him dead by their own hands and how badly they hated the twisted scientist.

Magus pulled up the fourth face. "He is currently detained in the Raft, although he will most likely break out, but we can get him out with little to no problems at all."

The fifth face came up. "She is still somewhere in space most likely as we still have seen no sign of any desperation of her brother to go to the X-Men for help, considering how much he hates mutants."

And finally, the sixth face popped up. "He is currently gathering materials and resources to continue with his plans to wipe out the 'less evolved'."

Xorn nodded in acceptance of what Magus had gathered for him on the future members. "Have the Nimrod components been installed yet?" Xorn asked.

Magus nodded in response to the question. "Yes, we can now freely use it in conjunction with your own abilities to travel through different times, realities and dimensions at your leisure."

"Good, get ready. We're going to recruit him first." Xorn pointed to the last face that Magus had shown him. Magus already had a feeling what Xorn wanted to do and say to convince this one to join with him. "Very well."

The two men left the room and made their way to a large room with a machine that had many wires and tubes attached to it, along with an outer plate shaped helmet that looked like it would attach to someone's head hanging from a crane connected to the machine. Xorn walked towards the machine while Magus made his way to another machine that had massive metallic rings encompassing one another and were bound together with smaller rings in the edges. Next to it was a control panel most likely to help keep the machine stabilized when it was turned on and to keep anything disastrous from happening.

"I still believe that we should test this in multiple simulations before an actual real-time usage of the device." Magus was worried that their crude but efficient gateway would malfunction on the first try, even though he himself had developed it alongside Xorn for the time being as they couldn't reveal their hand just yet to the world, they were too small and vulnerable.

"Not to worry Magus, we only need it for a few things. And besides, sometimes you have to run, before you can walk." Xorn believed that simulations would simply slow them down and push back their time table. Xorn grabbed the exo-helmet and lowered it onto his own black visored one and the machine began to come to life. He felt a massive amount of energy empowering him. Magus turned on the device next to him and the rings began to spin and turn until they formed a perfect sphere with electricity arcing around it. Magus had begun to stabilize it so it would hold together considering they had to steal tech from multiple companies to keep them from being noticed.

Xorn clasped his hands together and formed a hand sign and began to channel energy outwards and it was directed out towards the sphere. Xorn's own energy and the sphere's began to catalyze as the machine began to hum louder and louder as the rotations began to pick up speed. Soon it all came to an end as the sphere revealed a portal revealing a sinkhole with a massive skeleton down in the lit and surrounded by massive bones.

Magus looked back and forth between the portal that was just created and the console. He looked back towards Xorn and gave him the status of the portal. "The portal has been stabilized and will last for about 5 hours, unless someone on this side of it decides to shut the machine off, which I highly doubt given that we're shielded from everything inside this place."

"Good, while I go recruit our new member, I want you to gather up everything you can from the lab. He always seemed to have a few good things up his sleeve. And I also want to be able to grab those eyes. He kept good stock from what I heard." Xorn had lifted the exo-helmet from his head and grabbed a cloak off the nearby table, and walked towards the portal. He and Magus now stood in front of it and they walked through the sphere into the other dimension and now stood within the sinkhole. Xorn looked towards the portal and grew a rod out of his hand and stabbed it into the ground in front of the portal. "Unfortunately I can't place a Genjutsu over it, but I will keep a barrier around it to keep any...unwanted visitors out. Once your finished with your task, meet up with me if I have not." Xorn formed a series of hand signs in quick succession and a purple barrier began to emanate from the rod covering the portal.

"Understood." Magus nodded and sank into the ground to complete his task while Xorn turned out towards the edge of the sink hole high above and jumped up to the ledge, landing silently in the night. Xorn began to seek out the man he was looking for with his own abilities and found him, as he disappeared in a swirl that came from nowhere. 'Hmm…now that I think about it, it shouldn't be too long before that green idiot gets blasted away by that bomb. I wonder how you'll fair against him. Considering his rage level when he arrives.' Xorn chuckled to himself for a bit. He'd win, but he wondered how he did, he had heard how those two went head-to-head. Twice in fact, but he wanted to see both fights first hand.

* * *

-The Planet Sakaar-

* * *

The bomb went off and wiped the capital off the face of the planet. The source? The very same ship that brought him to this strange, violent, but accepting planet. He yelled to the heavens to whoever was listening. "GIVE THEM BACK! GIVE THEM BAAAACK!" But no answer, he slumped down to his knees and whispered to himself. "Give her back…" His comrades flew towards his prone position to see if he was alright considering what just happened. The king of the dead planet looked back to them for a moment, he wanted to be left alone. He had lost so much.

Miek the Unhived approached the Green King to try and comfort his first friend that he made outside of the hive. **"Two-hands..."**

"Leave me alone." His eyes stared down towards the ground.

"No, Holku." Hiroim the Shamed was a shaman of the Shadow Guard, but had lost that position under the Red King's tyranny "We are Warbound. To the end."

"Look around you, Hiroim. This is the end." He didn't get up, even as the comrades he had made during this latest struggle prompted him to react. "Nothing left to save. Nothing even left to smash."

Elloe Kaifi spoke up and offered something that would comfort her king. "Maybe not here...but the robot has a map of the entire universe in his head." Those words made something rage inside him. Something he had thought to have buried for the good of all, including himself and his other puny self.

**"I bet you can figure out some place you'd like to go..."** No-Name of the Brood shed a tear just from standing in the once glorious city she had come to call it home after being separated from the hive mind of her race. The Green King got back on his feet, the rage he was supposed to have suppressed now back, but now…it far more potent. Bigger than he had ever felt nor feared...

This is the story of the Green Scar. The Eye of Anger. The World Breaker. Harkanon. Haarg. Holku. The Rampaging, the Incredible and Indestructible Hulk.

And how he finally came home.

* * *

-Earth; the Institute-

* * *

Nori had been trying to get the details of what exactly happened back down in Limbo about David's death and such, so she had gone to those that were captured by Belasco, one by one. First she went to Hope, since she came to her and Julian with the message when they were trying to get to Limbo. "I...I might have seen it wrong. I saw him fall...it was really chaotic. I thought he was hurt, but...the others probably know better." Well that was a bust, so she went to Sooraya down in the med bay.

"He...broke a rib? But Elixir healed him." Fail. Next was Cessily.

"Ah, you know, I think he broke his wrist when he fell, but it was no big deal." Fail. Next was Josh.

"Hm? Oh, nothing really happened he just had a few scratches. Can I get back to talking with Laurie please?" Fail. Next was Laura, whom was pretty upfront and...scientific with the details. Nori really should've come to her first since everyone else decided to beat around the bush.

"...and then Belasco plunged his fingers into David's chest, piercing the skin and separating the muscles beneath. The sternum and several ribs were definitely shattered. He then pulled David's heart out, shedding the entire cardiovascular system. But because Elixir got to him so quickly, he was saved from any brain damage." She was reading a book on how to be truthful to people, in an effort to try and become closer with her newfound friends. Though she began to wonder if she said a little too much, going by the way Nori had electricity coursing through her eyes.

"Thank you, Laura."

She then decided to go confront David on why he didn't tell her what had happened, though Megan decided to talk to her on her her way through the halls. "Nori! Surge! Wait up! This is important!" Nori just kept on walking though but turned her head towards the flying girl. "What?!"

"Now that we're teammates, I have to tell you...I think you and David make a really cute couple." Really, now Megan..you just had to bring that up?

Their conversation, or rather the one-sided conversation anyway by Scott and Logan. "Surge." Both girls looked towards the men talking to them. "We need to talk." She didn't have time for whatever it was that he needed to talk with her about. "What about?"

"Student/Teacher Conferences."

"I'm busy."

Megan on the other hand, was thrilled by the mention of this. Now she was as giddy as a kid at Christmas, "Oh! I'll meet with you, Cyclops." Although...Logan had a different idea for the bubblegum pop teen. "Not so fast, darlin'." Megan turned to see a smirk on Logan's face that she really, really didn't like and had a bad vibe go down her spine. "You're coming with me."

"Where are we going?" She really shouldn't have asked that question, since the smirk turned into a large teethy small. He decided to show off the claws so she'd get the picture. "Danger Room." Megan gulped at that. Now she really would've prefered being in Limbo Hell than Logan Hell in the Danger Room.

* * *

-Emma's Office-

* * *

Emma sat back in her chair while Cessily was sitting in front of her desk while Julian was standing near the door, just itching to get out. "So. How are you? How is the team?"

Cessily had a bit of a scowl on her face, while Julian just looked bored and unimpressed. "Is this how it is? Fine. I've got a question. Where's Wither? You remember, Kevin Ford? One of your students. He ran away. You couldn't be bothered to find him, and now you've lost him?" This was actually new news to her yo hear from someone else rather than her teacher Ms Frost. So now she'd play the smartass that she so learned from her very teacher. "Or is he dead, and you're just not telling us?"

Julian spoke up next. "Dust told us, you know. About your bizarre 'trust' speech. You've lost it haven't you? Naruto's the only one who's been there there to help us, and you've blown us off since the Purifier attack, and now this? Putting a little distance between us, just in case we don't make it? Cyclops is making you do this, isn't he?" Julian already had the door open for he and Cess to check out of the 'conference' before Emma had a chance to say anything. He turned around and walked out without saying another word to the White Queen. Cessily got out of her chair and kept on walking behind her friend, but then a thought popped into her head, and voiced it. "We all think it's pretty sad." Then she slammed the door, while Emma stayed composed and took all the blunt anger directed at her. "Dismissed."

* * *

-The Dining Room-

* * *

Naruto had stopped with the age gathering and decided to get something to eat, considering his metabolism. "So how's everything going?" He sat down with Nick and Alani who got a midnight snack, well snack was kinda putting it mildly. Nick grabbed a bucket of ice cream while Alani had had a bag of popcorn and a liter Dr Pepper. "Eh, just hungry, nothing much." Nick said first. "Same here." Alani commented. Naruto guess being pulled down into Hell and then seeing who was gonna be the first to die kinda made them not really for words at the moment.

"Oh, alrighty then..." Naruto went back to his ramen that he made and put into a giant baking bowl, although he was gonna eat every bit of it. Though the silence was broken by Alani, "So is Pixie the youngest?"

"Hmm, oh...uuhhhh, I don't really know. My clones are still getting everyone's age so I couldn't really tell ya."

"Everyone thinks it's her since she acts like the youngest, or..." She then turned to Nick right next to her, "...you know, you."

"Great." An unenthusiastic Nick was just dipping his spoon in the ice cream and let the stuff melt down from it back into the bucket of the sweet goodness.

'Now that's just a waste of perfectly good junk food.' Naruto thought to himself. Though he saw a very funny scene run in front of him. Pixie flying away in a giant pink cloud of her dust, with a raging Logan right behind her. "WAAAAAHHH!"

"Fucking unicorns!" That scene just made Naruto burst out laughing his ass off and was on the verge of tears. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Nick then let it all out..."I hate this place."

"This place is awesome, I don't know what you're talkin' about." Naruto so cheerily added as he wiped the tears from his eyes. That little scene of Logan chasing Megan just made his whole day.

* * *

-Later-

* * *

All the teens were gathering in the common room including a Kurama who hadn't dispersed just yet, as had wanted to screw with the youngest mutant in the school about how and when he was gonna die. Naruto had finished up making his rounds with the ages and Indra was getting them all down on a small notepad. "...and Bling. That's everyone..."

Julian was getting impatient now, since he kinda wanted to poke a little fun at the youngest mutant, even though he knew he wasn't gonna die. Seriously, why did they think being the youngest meant they were gonna die next? It was kinda stupid. "So who is it?!"

Naruto turned back to Julian after looking over the dates on the notepad. "Hang on. We're still comparing birthdates." Indra then came across the Cuckoos ages and was officially confused now. "Wait a minute, how can the Cuckoos be two years old?" Naruto then gave the explanation, "Well technically they've been aged artificially to fifteen from I heard."

"It's Pixie. I mean, just look at her." Julian said to David standing right next to him, though he had a different interest right now. Namely Nori. He turned around as he heard the clanking of her gauntlets coming through the hallway to the common room. "Nori...I haven't seen you all day. How'd your meeting with Cyclops go?"

Nori just walked in after having a disagreement with slim and had decided on her course of action after the talk...though she doubted that anyone was going to like her after all was said and done, well mainly David...and Julian, ugh. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Guys, come on! Hurry up! The youngest mutant on Earth. It's like a one-way ticket to dead. It's like having two bullseyes on you, and in this place, one is enough." Nick was already getting antsy at the results as Naruto and Indra continued to compare the notes that he and his clones had taken while Kurama had a bag of popcorn at the ready for his own enjoyment, he could already see the sweating faces and the twitchy limbs...someone was gonna break and he'd be there to watch it all.

Meanwhile David was still trying to get Nori's attention as she just watched what Naruto and the others were doing. Eventually he saw that Nori was staring at him with calculative eyes, he saw that look before in other people. She was making a decision that odds are she wasn't too sure to do, and she'd have to deal with some major crap later on, he walked over to her and wanted to know what it was she was going to do...sad to say he'd find out first hand. "Hey Nori, what gives? You wanna tell me why you've got this look on your face?"

Indra had finally gotten all the birthdates down and made his announcement. "Uh, yeah. It's you Nick. You're the youngest mutant on the planet."

Nick however was quick to defend himself with a last ditch excuse. "Except for the Richard's kid. And Beak's kid!"

**"Ha! Nice try, but they don't count." **Kurama said, wanting him to squirm some more, thought he eventually turned his attention straight towards the list that Indra had in his hand. **"Hmmm...now that's odd..."** Indra was a little curious on what it was that Kurama saw but he didn't, "Uhh, what's odd?"

**"Your name's not on the list."**

"What? It's...oh no." Indra doubled back to the list and looked through to see that the fox was right. "It's me. I'm the youngest mutant on the planet!"

Nick let out a sigh at the news, he thought that either the Sentinels or maybe the Purifiers would come again.

"Helloooo...Nori? You in there?" Naruto was waving his hand in front of her face to try and get her to answer him, but she didn't move her mouth at all. Eventually, everyone in the room would have their attention towards where Naruto was in a couple of seconds. David was getting tired of Nori not answering him, "Nori, just look at me!" Though he was gonna get an answer, but not quite the way he expected it to be...Nori all of a sudden threw her arms around Naruto's neck and started to smother him with a passionate kiss in front of a wide eyed and shocked David, though that wasn't to say Naruto wasn't shocked at all. Though now he was being shocked literally, he really didn't know what the hell came over her when she started to kiss him and he really, really didn't want to hurt her while he was trying to get out of her grip. Everyone in the room turned their attention towards the two 'making out' and several gasps came from the students. Cessily just voiced a question though, which really meant why in the hell did she just do that? "Nori?!"

**"Ok. I'll admit it, I did not see that coming..."** Kurama was just as flabbergasted as the rest of the students, although he would eventually throw a one liner at Naruto later in the future about this.

Though Santo decided to address the other elephant in the room. "Dude, Indra...you're dead."

* * *

-Xorn-

* * *

It didn't take him long to find his intended target at all, his signature was different from everyone else's around the world and he knew that he was isolated and alone, making whatever plans that would fail, he just needed to show him the true form of evolution. He saw his man right in the middle of a clearing with a few bodies scattered around him and he had one man still barely breathing in an iron grip.

The man turned his attention towards Xorn and snapped the neck of the weakling in front of him, and dropped the body with no attention towards it. "Who are you? Another unevolved weakling for me to kill?"

"No, not at all. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Xorn, and I'd like to talk to you about 'True Evolution' and how much further I can help you, yourself evolve."

That got the man narrow eyed and on standby to teleport out of here if this Xorn person proved to be a threat. "How so?"

Xorn had a feeling that if he brought up evolution then his interest would spike up. "I come from a place where evolution is practically limitless, and here there hardly is none. I am what they would refer to as a 'Mutant', and my people are feared and hated for just being born by the less and unevolved. I am making preparations for one final conflict between mutants and humans, but I require help in doing so, you are one of the people that have great potential for vast evolution, and I'd like to help you a hive it, if you help me and my goal."

The man though for a bit in silence at what he just said. An alternate dimension, unlimited evolutionary potential, hated and feared by lesser beings, and a hunger to exterminate the human rats. Xorn opened a hand to him and offered help, in exchange for help, not something he would do lightly, but this man however seemed to be brimming with power, and he believed his words. He smiled at Xorn and made his decision, "Alright, I'll help you, but only if you in turn help me and my goals.

"Of course, though once you arrive in my dimension, you will see that our goals are one and the same." Xorn walked towards the man and handed him the cloak that he carried with him from his own lab, and soon Magus arrived after coming out of the ground and giving Xorn the news. "I was able to collect everything from the lab and take the back to our own. We're ready to go when your friend is."

"Oh, now don't be rude, introduce yourself to our newest member." Xorn stepped out of the man's view and showed him off to Magus with a wave of his hand.

"Ugghh, I hate formalities." Technarchs weren't known for such things. "I'm Magus, and you are?"

The man took the cloak from Xorn and put it on. He noticed that it was of the same design that a group of people not so long ago had worn, and terrorized the continent. A black cloak emblazoned with red clouds and no hood, but with a neck rim that came up above to his nose and had a zipper that went from top to bottom. "My name is Shin Uchiha. A pleasure, Xorn, Magus. I want to see your dimension and its evolved beings, these...mutants."

Xorn smiled under his mask at Shin's words and placed his hand on his shoulder to teleport away. "Very well, and welcome to the new Akatsuki."

* * *

-Elsewhere; Alaska-

* * *

A red haired woman was finishing up balancing her check book and paying a few bills at the fire station, as her mother was coming to pick her up due to not having a car really since she was a single woman. And soon to be a single mom.

She had a one night stand with a guy as she had a few here and there, never really deciding to settle down since she had better things to do. Although that's what she would tell people if they asked her, she never wanted to stay tied to one man for the rest of her life, she liked to party, get wild and enjoy her life. Though she would now have to take responsibility for this baby, her little girl that she would be raising on her own. Though she still had her own mom to help out with things when she couldn't be there for her baby girl and she was thankful to the Lord for it. She got up out of her seat after adjusting to her baby belly when it began to come on out and she already had the crib and everything else set up in her apartment.

The fire department had her sit things out for the last couple of months out in public and was given a desk job. She hated it to be honest, but she really didn't have a choice since she knew that her baby would've been lost to her and the desk paid the bills, she was also given one month on maternity leave when the baby came, which judging by her belly was, the little girl would be coming soon. Her mom soon pulled up and honked for her to come on out since she didn't want her driving with a baby belly and she was bound to have an accident due to having a Corvette and she loved to drive as fast as possible.

"I'm coming mom!" She began to walk towards the door and punch out for the day, but then she heard some dripping on the floor and she felt something down below in her body. She peered down as did her mother who was looking through the doorway and knew what was happening. "Mom! My water just broke!" Soon her life would take a very different, very drastic turn.

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Naruto was now struggling to get Nori off of him and try to make some sense of what and why she did what she just did. She kissed him! What the hell! Didn't she like David? His mind was trying to catch up with current events and what he already knew about the two of them.

David ran back to his room at what he just saw, while Naruto finally got Nori off of him and asked her. "What the hell was that Nori?!"

Nori just looked to the ground in shame at what she did. She had thrown away her relationship with her boyfriend and now odds are, she knew that Naruto was gonna get on her ass about this. Though as Naruto was about start ranting, he was interrupted by Pixie who was still a little shocked at what she just did. "Um, Surge? Naruto? Captains? What should we do about Paras? You know Indra?"

Naruto then turned to Pixie and ranted at everyone else in the room. "Wha...ah...geez, would ya'll give it a rest already dammit! Just because he's the youngest mutant on the planet doesn't mean he's gonna die!" Everyone was a little scared of a ranting Naruto now, those Rinnegan eyes of his really made him look like a demon of sorts. Naruto turned his attention back to Nori who still looked rather ashamed. "Alright let's go someplace where we can have a chat on why the hell you just kissed me."

* * *

-New York HQ of SHIELD; Office of Director Tony Stark, aka Iron Man-

* * *

"...so Havok and Polaris stayed behind with the Starjammers. They'll send regular updates on the Shi'ar political situation." Xavier had arrived to talk with Tony about the Vulcan situation and how regained his abilities since he was gone for several weeks in space to try and stop Vulcan. He needed to keep the other members of the hero Illuminati up to date on his side of things as did the other members as well. Though Tony had begun to think that maybe his old friend did land somewhere in that part of the universe. "Hmm. The Shi'ar system...it's certainly a possibility." He whispered to himself, though his voice became normal when he talked to Xavier. "Charles, could you get a message to Havok to keep an eye out for any sign of the Hulk?"

That had piqued Charles' interest and wondered what had happened while he was gone."The Hulk? Why would he be..."

Of course Tony's mouth ran faster than his head every now and then. "Right, you hadn't heard. Sorry. He went on a rampage...another one...in Las Vegas. Reed and the others and I decided he was too dangerous to remain at-large. So we took a vote. Only Namor dissented. We lured the Hulk into a spaceship...launched it towards a planet where there wasn't anyone he could hurt. For some reason, it never got there. We've been trying to determine where he ended up, but it's been kind of...busy around here."

Charles saw both the logic and error in this decision and saw both sides to the argument. One hand, they had just sent one of their oldest friends, and sometimes a hero to them and the people out into some part of space away from friends. While on the other hand, the Hulk was someone you could never fully talk to, nor control and keep on check when he went on a rampage, and sometimes many innocents got hurt during said rampages, so there was that.

His thoughts were interrupted by Tony as he asked Xavier a question. "I'm curious, Charles. If you had been here...how would you have voted?"

* * *

-The Institute; Naruto &amp; Surge-

* * *

Naruto took Nori to the library where hopefully they could talk in private. "So...any chance you wanna tell me why you kissed me in front of everyone?"

"How would you feel if that one girl...Sakura got killed?"

"What?"

"You were in love with her, so if she got killed while you guys where on a mission, then how would you feel? I mean weren't you scared of loosing her on the slight possibility that she could've been killed? Weren't you worried that you couldn't protect her when she needed it?"

Naruto got what she was getting at. She kissed him in front of David to push him away from her so she couldn't feel the pain of loosing him and he would live with a clean conscience, so to speak. Naruto though for a moment and started to explain things a bit to Nori. "Honestly, the though never crossed my mind on how I would feel if she died. Because I knew that she was tougher than nails and I trusted her, that she could protect herself and her comrades when we were out in the field."

Naruto looked Nori in the eyes as he lifted her chin up to face him while he talked. "You can't make choices for people Nori. What should I've done with her? Stop trying to love and protect her when I get needed to protect her? That's not me, and not protecting friends wasn't who Sakura was either. To be honest, I still love her even after being here in this world."

Nori took his words in and realized that she made a huge mistake with David. "You really are a bit of an idiot sometimes, but you also have these big speeches up your sleeve." Nori said.

"Yeeeaaah...I'm just that good, hehe." Naruto propped his hands behind his head and had goofy grin on his face.

Nori chuckled a bit at the Shinobi. "I really screwed things up with David."

"I think it's best if you try to go and apologize to him Nori." Naruto dropped his hands and the grin, as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah...I really should."

* * *

-David-

* * *

David knew what she had done, he wasn't stupid. He began to pack up all of his things to head back home to his parents and began studying at Harvard, and get a proper education. It's what he originally wanted ever since he came to the school. As he put his clothes inside his duffle bag, he saw the old picture of him and the New Mutants, his old team back when they first became a team with Dani as their advisor.

He missed those days...eventually the Stepford Sisters came into his room understanding the situation between him and Nori, and sensed the turmoil in him. "Hello, David."

David turned to the psychic trio and had a bit of a scowl on his face. "What do you want? I'm busy?" He didn't wanna be rude to the girls, it's just that his mood was ruined for the night.

Celeste spoke first, "We know what happened David. We know why she did it. We want to help. You saved us, David, when Stryker came. We want to help you"

Then Irma, "We want to help you remember everything you forgot."

"And what did I forget?" David was curious as to what they were getting at.

Then the trio spoke in unison to David, which was kinda creepy in a way. Almost like those to ghost girls from the Shining. "The Human mind remembers everything, but the connections to those memories fail."

"We can restore those connections, all of them."

"Every skill you learned, you can remember."

"All of them, right now."

Now he got at what they were talking about. "You're talking about my power. I knew how to do anything someone around me could...and you're saying I still know? I've just forgotten?"

"You would have it all back. But you would not be able to learn anything new." Celeste revealed to him.

"No...I've been down this road before...it's too much. Too much." He had asked Dani and Emma to take the restraints off his mind when he still had powers, and he saw that it would've only brought misery and pain to himself and others with all that knowledge.

"We felt your mind was strong enough, or we would not have offered. But we understand. We think we would have missed you, David. When we could still feel."

He looked back to the picture of the New Mutants, his squad. And then finally his answer came. "...stop...do it." He wouldn't lay down and see his friends get killed, not when he has one chance to get things back and be a part of the X-Men again.

* * *

-The Common Room-

* * *

After talking with Nori, about all that crap, he went back to the Common Room to see where everyone was at and saw that they all had smiles and the mood was rather cheery. Though he caught the scent of something in the air. "Uh, hey guys, what's that smell?"

Vic answered with some some melted marshmallows and chocolate with at the end of a stick. "S'mores. Want some dude?"

"Nah, just got some ramen, 'bout a half an hour ago."

"Dude, you're obsessed with that stuff."

"Whoa! I am not that obsessed, it is glorious! It's the food of the Gods and those who eat it as such will be provided paradise in the afterlife!" Naruto stuck a fist in the air and was in a stance that one would call 'epic'.

Everyone just sweat dropped at his words and antics. He really was obsessed with it after that speech. Though eventually Beast came walking in with a box with an X on the corner of it. "Attention my little X-Progenies, I..." Though he got the same whiff of the air as Naruto did when he first walked into the room. "...say, do I smell s'mores?"

Alani spoke up to the Professor, "Hi, Professor. We're having a campfire."

"Indoors? Well played." He lifted the box lids open and brought up a brand spankin' new X-Uniform similar to the ones he and his friends had worn in the old days. "I have new uniforms for you."

Alani saw the design of them and just though and said, "Ugh. Really? Do we have to?"

"They're bulletproof." That's when the rest of the kids perked up at that tid-bit of news on the new ones.

"Oh, hey..."

"I needed a new costume..."

"Sign me up!"

"Can I have two?"

* * *

-Nori-

* * *

She needed to apologize to David what she just did after hearing Naruto's thoughts on why she kissed Naruto to push David away. She finally walked into him in the hallway, and was about to speak, but David started first off and told her straight up. "First off, I know why you did it. You don't want to feel the pain of losing me, and you tried to push me away. But I'm not leaving. If this is the end of mutantkind...then I stand with the Institute. This is my home, this is where I belong. You don't get to make that decision for me. And also, we're through."

Nori was a little speechless at that last part. She loved him, and now she had thrown it all away with that one kiss. She really was an idiot. She didn't get the chance to say she was sorry to him as the staff soon called for her team into the Common Room by Cyclops. They all gathered in their new uniforms and stood with one another, while Naruto and David where standing next to Cyclops and Wolverine. Cyclops soon addressed the students on the team, "You may be the last generation of X-Men. We may all die tomorrow, we may die a year from now, or we may live forever, like Wolverine and Ronin here."

Wolverine turned a bit to Naruto and sarcastically said to the ninja. "Lucky us."

"I'll say, it sucks." Naruto still was trying to adjust that he was now immortal after hearing it from Kurama.

"Now ya know how I feel every now and then."

Cyclops continued on as the two had their small chit-chat. "But until that day comes, this is a school. And you have work to do. Team-building exercises will now be a part of your lives again. Individual power training will also resume. If none of the senior staff is available, Prodigy will sub until we return. Ronin will be on both this team and the senior X-Men team part-time, so he'll be back and forth between the two teams."

That made Naruto rather proud a bit, now he'd be going on missions with the senior X-Men. The same level of danger that Jean had gone through on the missions she told him about. This was gonna be awesome. Cyclops finally finished his speech. "You're New X-Men. And you've still got a lot to learn."

* * *

-Xorn's Hideout-

* * *

It was hungry, it smelled prey beyond the walls of the master's home. It felt some weak scents, and some strong scents. Some where just small appetizers, while others were grand delicacies.

But now it sensed a massive surge of power somewhere to the far north, it struggled to break free of the cage it was in as it began to ram the walls and shatter the glass, but it was all for naught. The master ensured that it would not escape the cage so soon, and that he would be led to the greatest delicacy of them all soon...very soon...

* * *

_**Holy crap! This took me longer than expected but hey, that's what happens when you're in college, works needs you, and I recently got an Xbox One and the Master Chief Collection to play the crap out of and by the gaming gods…it is grand!**_

_**Anyway, I hinted at several things and Xorn's group as revealed itself as the new Akatsuki with Shin Uchiha as its newest member. I just had to include this guy in the story, as I found him to be a bit of a useless character from the manga, though I could be told wrong. If you guys can guess who the other future members will be, please send it over to me on a PM as I don't want them to be spoiled in reviews. If you can guess anything else that you think might happen later in the story PM me, as I don't want things to be spoiled.  
**_

_**Now that scene with the pregnant woman will play a key role later on in the story, so just bear with me on that. And the last scene was the Predator X if some of you guys didn't know yet, so anyways. I hope you guys have enjoyed this chapter and next up is World War Hulk. Now it won't be encompassing everything that happens in the arc, rather it will encompass the X-Men's side of the event, and the final two issues of the main World War Hulk series. So continue to follow, favorite, read and review (no flames please as they will be deleted) this story, so until next time, see ya'll later :).**_

_**PS: Please in your reviews in the future, and this is the second time that I've had to say. Please tell me what all you guys liked, and disliked about the chapter, telling me good job, great chapter, awesome chapter or just some random stuff doesn't hep me become a better writer. Give me specifics and what not. Thank you :)**_


	16. Chapter 15: World War Hulk

Chapter 15: Word War Hulk

* * *

This is the story of the Hulk. A monster who fell from the sky to the savage planet of Sakaar...a whole world of monsters. But while they stabbed him...burned him...and ate his very flesh...he never forgot the real monsters...the puny Humans who sent him here. Doctor Strange. Mr Fantastic. Iron Man. Black Bolt. They shot him into space. They thought they were saving their world. They thought he was finally dead. But he survived. Because he is the Green Scar...the Worldbreaker...the Eye of Anger...the Rampaging, the Incredible and Indestructible Hulk...and now he's coming Home.

* * *

-North American Aerospace Defense Command Outpost B23, Cheyenne, Wyoming-

* * *

Two workers at the outpost were just chattin' around with one another and shootin' the shit. "So then I said, dude, if you're such a good friend...how come you're always judging? I mean..."

But then the console came flashing all of a sudden with some major readings. "Hang on, are you getting this?"

"Getting what?" The other person was chowing down on a burger from Mickey D's...uggh, that synthetic stuff is really bad.

"Sector 12, 3-Apple-Baker-44." A large silhouette of a triangle shaped object came into view and then suddenly vanished, though it didn't really bother the other guy, since he was too busy eating, and could give a shit less since he was about to get off the clock and head home.

"Yeah, I'm picking it up...we call it the Moon." He rolled his eyes at the newbie's edge, not everything was an alien ship invading them.

"No, I'm telling you, there was something else on the scope...something big."

* * *

-The Blue Area of the Moon; Outside Attilan, City of the Inhumans-

* * *

The Hulk came home in order to release his rage on the ones who wronged him, but he wouldn't be taken seriously enough, this he much he knew. They thought that he was just throwing another one of his tantrums or something...no, this was not it, this was payback fueled by raw rage and anger. He needed to show the world that they were monsters, what happened to them after...well...he'd leave that to the people of the world. He was donned in his gladiator gear with a massive sword strapped to his back for combat.

The first on his list to prove his seriousness was the closest, and the only one among the monsters that could match him. Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans, with only his voice could he take on the Hulk's brute strength. He jumped from his ship down to the surface of moon to take him down, and just his luck, Black Bolt and his wife Medusa were outside waiting for him. He knew somehow that this decision would come to haunt him and the others, he saw the ship arriving and had took the initiative to try and stop this before the Hulk's vengeance reached Earth.

Medusa could only speak for Black Bolt since his voice would only do harm than good. "You come unannounced to the land of the Inhumans. Girded for war. But you can't win this fight. You have faced my Lord before, Hulk. And you were defeated. Black Bolt's master blow can shatter your bones. And his merest whisper will blow your broken body into the sun."

They didn't see the rage in the Hulk's face until he turned to them. Despite how well they both were composed...they were rather afraid of him, after seeing the miniscule rage on his face. He simply responded with the charges that the Illuminati had committed, in his eyes. "You shot me into space." He began to walk towards the king and queen, with anger laced in his words. "Killed my world."

Medusa asks him to yield, although she knew that it would fall on deaf ears. "Stop, Hulk."

The Hulk, then finally got right into his face, and grabbed his arms. "Never."

Black Bolt needed to end this now, before his city and people, his wife would come to harm by the Hulk's rage. So he ever so slowly whispered, "Enough." The shockwave released from his voice slammed into the Hulk, he had already let go of one arm, but he clung onto the other arm for his rage would not let him go down without a fight. But he let go knowing that it was not going to end until he did so. He wanted Black Bolt to know that he was now nothing compared to him, so he made a feint to fool the king.

Believing the fight to be over, they royal family walked back to the city, but they were wrong. All of a sudden they heard the Hulk's voice right behind them up in the air right about to pounce on the Inhuman king, and he was ready to fight once more. "I didn't come here for you to whisper. I came to hear you scream."

* * *

-The Institute; Cerebra-

* * *

Xavier was sitting down in Cerebra looking for some sign that perhaps maybe, just maybe that there were new mutants being born, but nothing. _'Nothing. After all this time...nothing. I remember when new mutants appeared almost daily. But according to Cerebra, the population is the same now as it was on M-Day. Smaller actually, when you take into account the ones who've died since then. And there've been far too many. Can the Scarlet Witch have done more than de-power most mutants? Can she have actually altered the human genome so no new ones will be created? Are we an endangered species? No. I can't accept that. I won't. Got to keep searching. Focus harder. Shut everything else out.'_

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

It had been a few days since the teens had tried to see who was the youngest mutant on the planet, and Naruto was meditating on top of the roof for about a couple of hours. He made a few clones to practice on a few techniques and formations he had decided to try and test out. He needed to meditate after exercising like hell. Namely for a special Taijutsu formation, and a couple of Rinnegan techniques as well. He dispelled a few clones and had a grin on his face. _'Oh, hell yeah! I got the first step down in the formation. Gonna hurt like afterwards though...'_

_**'You sure that you've actually got it down? You know it took those two a long time to get it down. And even then, you aren't prepared for the after effects of using it.'**_

_'Yeah, but I figured this is one way I can honor them in a sense. Plus, I wanna see the look on their faces when we head home and show it off to them.'_

Naruto's conversation with the fox was interrupted when he sensed a massive spike in not just energy, but malice and vengeful intent coming from the sky. He broke out of his meditation and immediately dispelled his clones, taking the backlash of memories and experiences with some difficulty and he almost passed out, had Kurama not have lent some of his chakra to the Shinobi. _**'Careful kid, don't try to overdo it.'**_

_'Yeah, I know. But...all that rage...that was something else entirely...I got a bad feeling about this...'_

Naruto jumped off the roof and headed inside to suit up for whatever was heading their way. He passed by his teammates whom Beast was training with in the institute's hallways. Beast was giving out colorful commentary and tips and such out to the students. Hellion and Dust were sparring in the air, with Rockslide and X-23 duking it out in hand-to-hand, Surge and Mercury were engaged in long range combat while Anole and Pixie were porting and hopping around one another to get their reflexes up. Naruto had come up to Beast and needed to tell him about what he felt outside. "Impressive shape-shifting, Mercury; your control's improving." He saw Rockslide take a swing at X-23 and she ducked under it going straight for his legs in an attempt to cripple him. In turn he hit a piece of furniture instead. "Rockslide, that's five points deducted for the lamp."

"Dang! How come we're not sparring in the Danger Room?"

"Because when you're full-fledged X-Men, your battles won't happen in reinforced sub-basements. Many will occur in _public_." Beast put emphasis on the word public since he knew Rockslide was going to get reckless when that day came. "You need to learn how to fight without harming civilians."

"Aw, crap. I think I killed an armoire!" Rockslide threw another punch towards X-23, but once again she dived out of the way towards his left side, turned around and stabbed him in the back. Naruto stepped next to Beast and had patted him on the shoulder to grab his attention for a bit. "Hey Furry Buddy, I felt a really massive surge of rage out of the sky for some reason, it was like nothing I ever felt from anyone else before."

Beast widened his eyes at that, something was going to go down soon from what Naruto just told him. But why the sky he wondered. "We need to get the students out of the school if need be, and I'll alert the other teams to head back here quickly. Hopefully this..." But then Beast was cut off when they all felt a massive tremor coming from the Sentinels outside the school.

"Earthquake!"

"No. Look outside." Hank leapt up to the window and hung from the ceiling, as everyone else ran towards the glass to see what was going on. "The Sentinels are taking off.

Mercury was confused by why the Sentinels were abandoning them at the mansion. "I thought their job was to keep an eye in us."

Naruto stared outside and said out loud. "Someone really strong is coming..." If a ninja that could probably take Thanos on, and say that. Then they really had something to worry about...Beast ran towards the TV remote to see what the newscast was saying. "For the O*N*E to call them away...if we haven't managed to break the TV, maybe we can find out what's happening." Hank grabbed the remote and turned it to CNN to see what the hell was going on.

* * *

-Outpost B23-

* * *

The worker on the station knew she wasn't seeing things, there was something coming from the moon's direction and it was massive. Her console began to go off like crazy and alerted her co-worker walking behind her. "I told ya'll there was something!"

He picked up his comm set immediately to alert the regional commander. "Commander, we have a situation...there's been an explosion on the moon...chunks of lunar rock breaking out of orbit. But that's not all..." He was about to finish up with the on-the-spot report, but he stopped as all the screens started to show nothing but static and distorted screens. "Wait a minute, we've just lost our signals."

* * *

-Outside of Congress-

* * *

Tony Stark had just come out of meeting with the committee on Superhuman affairs on how to deal with Unregistered heroes now that the war was over, and his best friend was now dead...he wanted to try and talk them out of forcing him or his registered Avengers from hunting down his friends, he truly felt now that everything he did in the name of what was right, the law, was not even worth it. He confessed it all to the corpse of his once best friend. He remembered Steve asking him was this truly worth it, Tony called him a sore loser and walked away like an arrogant bastard that just took all the poker chips at the table.

* * *

_-Flashback; Several weeks ago, SHIELD Helicarrier-_

* * *

_Tony had already begun to choke a bit and tear up as he started off all philosophical on histories of previous wars, and people like King Arthur, now he had begun to get to the meat of what he was getting to. "The good news is...through all of this...I never took a drink! And if I didn't drink during this, I'm probably never going to...so there's that..."_

_He hung his head down in shame as for a moment he couldn't bear to look on the cold table where his friend laid down with his shield on top of him. He mustered whatever strength he could to look upon his once and previous friend. "To do what I needed to do to win this quickly...I knew that meant you and I would probably never speak again. Or be friends again. Or partners again. I told myself I was ok with it. Because I knew I was right and I-I knew it was saving lives."_

_The tears kept on coming as he choked in his sentences..."It was! It was the right thing to do! And-and-and I was willing to get in bed with people we despise to get this done. And I knew the world favors the underdogs and that I would be the bad guy. I knew this and I said I was ok with it. And-and even though I said...even though I said I was willing to go all the way with it...I wasn't."_

_And now he began to add yelling to the tears and chokes. "And-and I know this because the worst has happened. The thing I can't live with...has happened. And for all our back and forth...and all the things we've said and done to each other...for all the hard questions I've had to ask, and terrible lies I've had to tell...there's one thing that I'll never be able to tell anyone now. Not my friends or my co-workers or my president...the one thing! The one thing I should have told you. But now I can't...it wasn't worth it." He continued to sob to himself for several hours alone, in front of probably the only man he ever truly respected._

* * *

-Now-

* * *

The press was wanting to get some story out of the Director of SHIELD for the nightly news, although in a few hours they'd get a story unlike any other about the man and three others.

"Director Stark, any truth to the rumors about a fight with She-Hulk?"

"Political disagreement...or lovers spat?"

A few agents had cordoned off the press from the man. "No interviews today, kids."

Tony had just received the news about the satellites and knew that a ship had entered their space. He needed to let the president know what was going on. "Something's hit the satellites, Mr President. You need to give the order now, before..." But the man in the White House already knew. _"Too late...it's already reached New York."_

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Beast and the rest of the New X-Men had caught the news of the satellites had begun to go out, now they saw the massive ship entering the atmosphere and had settled over Time Square in New York City. Soon they saw a massive light begin to shine over the area and a massive hologram of the one responsible for the satellite blackout, and Naruto knew from one look that this was the one person responsible for the massive surge in energy, and the rage.

_**"We're gonna be in for one hell of a fight later tonight."**_ Kurama knew from one glance that he was a seasoned warrior.

_"Looks like I'll have to use _those_ Jutsu's later. Hopefully it'll help give us an edge over this dude."_

Naruto looked over to Beast, who had a fearful and shocked look on his face. "Who is this guy Furry Buddy?"

"He's the Hulk. He's by definition the third strongest being on Earth before you came. Though now, I don't know after seeing him like this."

Naruto now knew what to call the guy now. The Hulk. This would be a fight that odds are, he couldn't hold back much, or else he'd lose...badly. Soon they heard the Hulk began to talk over everyone in Times Square and across the world through the news broadcasts on the hijacked satellites. _**"Puny humans. I've come to smash. And you should know who's to blame."**_

The screens across the world changed to a paused video of four men, three of which Naruto recognized, and the other was new to Naruto. He knew more than likely that the Doc would contact him soon, once the Hulk said what he had. _**"You call them heroes. I call them monsters. Listen to what they told me before they tried to kill me..."**_

The paused videos then began to play out and incriminate the four men. _"I have always thought of us as friends, Bruce. So I am genuinely sorry. But for your sake and ours, we're sending you away. It's the only way we can be sure."_

The feed cut off and soon a slideshow of other pictures and videos began to play as the Hulk spoke once more. _**"Iron Man. Mr Fantastic. Dr Strange. Black Bolt. They shot me into space. Sent me to a planet called Sakaar. Where I could be cut...even killed. Where the emperor made me a slave. And then a gladiator. They sent me to die."**_

The Hulk then brought up holograms of five other beings next to him. A man made of stone that was as big as him, a giant big that was fat and looked almost like a roach, a red skinned woman, a flying insect with a human mouth and sharp teeth, and a man with black tattoos on his shoulders and forehead. He named them each in order of when they appeared. _**"But I survived with my Warbound. Korg. Miek. Elloe. Brood. Hiroim. We made a world. I was the Green King. And Caiera the Oldstrong was my Queen. But your 'Heroes' sent a bomb. Killed a million people."**_ The Hulk continued talking while he bent down and lifted a hatch to grab something...or someone. _**"Now this city will fall. You have 24 hours to evacuate. When I return, I want to see Mr Fantastic, Iron Man and Dr Strange. And if they're not here..."**_ The Hulk finally brought up what he was grabbing for, the mangled form, and yet still alive Black Bolt. _**"...I'll do this to your whole fucking planet."**_ His face was filled with rage and impatience. He wanted his demands to be met, and they _would_ be met by tonight. The Hulk retreated back into his ship with Black Bolt in hand and the hologram shut off leaving the city in silence.

Iron Man donned his armor and lifted off into the atmosphere to begin taking back the satellites the Hulk hijacked, but it seemed that the Hulk had already anticipated that he would do just that and had modified the EMP to take the satellites back and injury Stark in the process.

Soon Dr Strange appeared in astral form to speak to Iron Man on what their plan of action should be. "He withstood Black Bolt's voice. Do you think your machines can stop him?" Iron Man turned to see Stephen's form and pondered what he was trying to say. "He's never been angrier. So he's never been stronger."

_"Use your magic Stephen. Send him away..."_ But the Doc stopped him there immediately. "So he can tear apart someone else's world? And comeback even stronger? No. We created this problem. We must solve it. We have 24 hours. Each of us must prepare in his own way. In the meantime, my comrades will help you evacuate the city...if you can resist arresting them for a few hours."

Tony knew that even with the registered heroes from the Avengers and the Initiative, they wouldn't last long. They needed every cape they could to stop the Hulk, and considering the recent meeting he had..._"I'll do more than that. All unregistered super heroes who help will get a full pardon when this is all over."_

"A nice sentiment. Sadly, it assumes we'll all be alive when this is over. Though perhaps we may yet live, I must speak with someone." And with that Stephen left Tony to his curiosity. _"Who is he talking about?"_

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Naruto was on edge now and was wondering when the Doc would come to ask him help, since odds were, he was the only one that could take this guy down. Throw some Sage Mode here, a Rasenshuriken there, and a dash of _that_ in as well. Though more than likely he'd need other Jutsu's also to take the Hulk down. Honestly, he really thought what they did was absolutely fucking stupid. Just to make sure everyone was safe they shot a guy into space? Another decision he thought was made out of fear rather than logic.

Julian turned back to the other members of the team and wanted in on the action, he knew they could take him on since they had ninja dude. "We have to go there. Take him down."

Surge looked at him like he was crazy. "What were we just practicing Hellion? How many innocent people would die in a fight like that, even with Naruto's power?"

Mercury knew that her friend's heart was in the right place, but his head usually jumped the gun as usually. "Surge is right. We should go, but to help people evacuate."

Naruto placed a hand on Hellions shoulder garnering his attention. "Hellion they both made good points. One: If we do go down there to start a fight with that guy, people would just get in the way and they would die. And two: Getting people out is a much bigger priority, they're the reason why we do what we do."

Hellion sighed a bit in acceptance on the points his friends made. But Beast had a different idea already. "You're going nowhere. I'm alerting the other teams. They're already in the field, they'll handle..." Though now Naruto interrupted when he sensed the Hulk's rage...right outside the gates. "Wait, tell them to get back! He's..." Now Naruto was interrupted by what seemed like a small earthquake, but really it was caused by the Hulk. "...he's already here." Everyone went to the windows and saw that he spoke the truth, that negative emotions sensing of his never lied one bit. Beast saw the look on the Hulk's face and saw impatience along with the current scowl of rage constantly on his face. "Oh...oh no."

"Xavier. I want Xavier. Now." The Hulk wanted to hear it from his mouth.

Prodigy and Elixir ran upstairs from the med-bay after seeing the news, where they were studying up on homework concerning the medical field in the heat of battle. "Dr McCoy, did you see..."

"I saw, Elixir. I've already sent a mayday call to the others. Prodigy, round up the students and take them to the subbasement. Get them through the old Morlock tunnels. Tell the Professor what's happening. The students' safety is a priority one. Understand?"

"Yes, sir." Prodigy nodded in acceptance of his plan.

"We'll buy you as much time as we can."

Pixie was a little confused at first, "Buy...?" But then it hit her..."...oh boy...we're gonna have to fight him aren't we?"

Santo smacked his hands together in anticipation. "Awww, hell yeah! I'm gonna fight the Hulk! Playin' in the majors, baby! You ain't nobody in this business 'till you've fought the Hulk! This is badass!"

Naruto slapped him on the head. "Ow!"

"Santo you idiot. This isn't some guy we can take lightly. Granted I used to be the same way years ago, but I learned better eventually."

Beast agreed with Naruto, the Hulk throwing a tantrum was one thing, this was something else altogether. "Listen Santo, this is not 'awesome'. It's not a game. I've fought the Hulk before. Several times. And I've _never_ seen him like this. This is not the 'Wounded Child' Hulk. This is not the 'Barroom Brawler' Hulk. This is a Hulk field by so much rage he could destroy everything in his path." Eventually everyone started to focus intently on Beast's words. "This building houses one-quarter of the Mutants left on Earth. On Earth." He repeated the last two words especially to emphasize the gravity of the situation they were in.

Naruto spoke up next. "We're not fighting the Hulk to see who's stronger, or to throw him in prison. We're fighting him to stop him from killing every mutant in the school. He won't stop until he gets what he wants. And he wants blood."

They heard the Hulk's heavy footsteps outside marching towards the front door. Beast knew it wouldn't be too long before he broke it down and the massacre began. "I'll try to talk to him. But the Hulk's never been one for talking, so we need a plan. I'd never ask this if the stakes weren't so high and the other teachers weren't away. If anyone doesn't feel..." Anole stepped up and spoke for them all "Dr McCoy...we get it. We're in."

Beast looked at the resolve and commitment they each had on their faces. "You're going to make wonderful X-Men. All right here's what we'll do..."

Prodigy and Xavier rounded up the rest of the students and headed downstairs to the Morlock tunnels, as the New X-Men prepared for one hell of a fight. Naruto already began the preparations for _that_ formation and he started infusing chakra into his limbs so he could let loose punches as strong as Sakura and Granny Tsunade could use. Hopefully he wouldn't have to go into Tailed Beast Mode or use the Perfect Susanoo just to take him down, more than likely he'd end up killing the Hulk if he did. He would be the first to make the first hit to give the others the advantage of beating him down.

Beast went to the door, while the rest of the battle ready students stayed behind and out of sight. He opened it up and saw the Hulk standing at least a good 3-4 feet taller than him, and with a very impatient expression on his face. "Ah...hello Bru..." He stopped right there knowing the Hulk hated being called Bruce Banner, he thought he was just another worthless puny human, "...Hulk. What..."

"Xavier. Bring him here."

"You know I can't do that."

"Out of the way. I'll find him myself."

"I'm afraid I can't do that either."

Then Hulk slammed his hand into Beast sending him back against the wall hard, and shattering the school's main door. "Wasn't askin'."

Naruto, or rather a multitude of Naruto's sprang at the Hulk with a little surprise. "You're goin' down ya bastard! Wind Style: Multi-Rasengan Barrage!"

_"Who the hell is this kid?! He wasn't in the database that we hacked in the satellites!"_ He was caught off guard by what he did, and his healing factor was working slower than usual. Whatever the kid did, weakened it a bit.

The twelve Naruto's launched them right at his chest almost burning through his skin, the Hulk hadn't felt anything like that in a while. The other students ran outside with Rockslide and Anole double teaming their punches on the Hulk's face, Mercury and X-23 started to stab is chest where the Naruto's had already done some damage that seemed to be healing at a slow pace. Hellion and Surge were trying to keep him from moving with the telekinesis-electricity combo almost disabling him, while Dust would blind him in her sand form.

"Keep hitting him! Don't let up!" Surge yelled out loud to the rest of the team. Naruto was now modifying his arms with Shurado to help him out with the excess steam that would come off of his arms when he used the Boil Style. Didn't wanna get caught up in the fight and not release the steam that would eventually blow his arms off.

"McCoy! You got two seconds to call these kids off, or what happens to them is on you!" Hulk was getting madder by the second since these kids got in his way. He really wanted to save his rage for the Illuminati members that shot him into space and for trying to kill him.

Pixie and Elixir helped up Beast after getting whales on with one hit and had their plan to go. "Ready kids?"

"I'm ready." Pixie had her Soul Dagger out and would teleport at the ready to stab him, and hopefully it would knock him out.

Elixir jumped up on Beast's back, though he was a little nervous about the plan. "I...it's just, my death touch..."

"...can't kill the Hulk. It's an 'overdose' of your healing touch, so I'm hoping it'll overload his healing factor, which is the only way we stand a chance. With Naruto's first strike throwing the Hulk off guard, the rest of the team keeping him down, and your death touch should give Pixie plenty of time to knock him out with her Soul Dagger."

Elixir was still rather skeptical, even though the plan was crude but efficient. "What if you're wrong? What if I do kill him?"

Beast charged towards the Hulk at top speed as he saw the Hulk was getting ready to strike back. "Son...they'll probably give you a medal."

The Hulk got his hands free long enough to slam the ground sending a shockwave to the X-teens, knocking them unbalance and disorienting them. Hulk got up and saw that Beast was coming up on him and attempted to grab him while his vision was returning after Dust's sand was clearing from his eyes, but failed as Beast ducked underneath giving Elixir a window of attack. "Gey ready, Josh...now!"

"RRAAARGGH!" The Hulk yelled in pain at what the golden kid did, it weakened his healing factor even more now after the clone kid did a small number on him. Beast took Elixir off his back and began to talk to his old friend.

"You may want to rethink this, Hulk. Do you understand what we just did?"

"Yeah...you just pissed me off even more." Then Hulk heard some strange words as he turned to the furry X-Man.

"Sihal Novum Chinoth!" Pixie teleported above and behind him prepared to stab the Hulk in the head to knock him out, but the Hulk was fast enough to realize this was all just a distraction for the girl to get the last hit on him. He wasn't dumb, just angry. He quickly backhanded her, sending her towards the school. Luckily a NaruClone jumped up and caught her before she went through a wall and broke a few bones. He landed on the side of the building checking up on her status. "Hey, Pixie. You alright?" She didn't responded since she was knocked out cold and her dagger had dispersed, leaving only their fists as the solution to the Hulk. "Shit...hey guys she's out cold." Naruto himself was gathering up some Natural Energy for Sage Mode to boost his own strength and reflex's to take this guy down.

"Get her down to the med-bay!" The original said to the clone. He nodded and Body Flickered to the place down below the mansion, while the original began to make the final preparations. _'I get the feeling that those two are gonna be rambling non-stop about youth and crap.'_

"All right. Eight Inner Gates Formation: First Gate - Gate of Opening; Open!" Naruto's pupils dilated and he felt a massive rush of power flow throughout his body. His vision became far more clear and could almost see the infection on the Hulk's chest begin to recede and heal. His muscles tensed up and he then called on his next bit he was preparing for the Hulk. "Boil Style: Unrivalled Strength!" Steam began to build up around Naruto and vent through his arms with Shurado. _'I don't wanna show off my Tailed Six Paths Sage Mode to him yet. I might have to end up fighting him again.' _He recalled that the First Gate would allow him to use 100% of his body's strength, as everyone else is only able to use only 20%.

After the other X-Men were taken down by the Hulk when they tried to use Attack Formation Sigma. Naruto ran right up the Hulk with speed that surprised him and Naruto thrust a single punch right at his abdomen, making the Hulk's eyes widen in shock that a kid had this much strength. The punch sent the Hulk straight past the rest of the Mutants and right through the the walls surrounding the school.

The kid's punch knocked the wind out of him, and right onto his back, he felt a lot of pain on his abdomen, his healing factor frying to work it over, all he had to do was bear with the pain, and get Xavier, that's all he wanted. Though this kid could actually be a challenge to smash, so it wouldn't be a massive waste of time. But now he heard the sound of the Blackbird arriving overhead and saw an old 'friend' of his step out and flash the claws that came with, along with the other occupants. "You're real impressive beatin' on kids, bub. But it's grown-up time."

The Astonishing X-Men arrived just in time to even the odds against the green giant. "Hnh...this is the fight I was expecting. Though you really should have this kid with ya if you wanna stand a chance. Bring it on." They saw Naruto ready to strike, and judging from the large burns on his chest, he already did and had given them some time before the Hulk recuperated his full strength. Emma had already went into her diamond form, Colossus was armored up, Cyclops had his hand on his visor ready to go full power and Shadowcat had Lockheed on her shoulder ready to tag-team the Hulk.

But the fight was stopped momentarily when everyone heard Xavier's voice over all the carnage. "No, Hulk...I believe you said you're here for me." Everyone turned to the founder of the school and the dream it stands for right outside the door. He had heard that the Hulk had come to Institute to see what Xavier would have said at the meeting deciding the Hulk's fate, but now he needed to take a more active role in the ensuing brawl, in the hopes to stop it before someone was killed and the school destroyed. "Now that I've seen my students to safety, you've got your wish."

"Xavier. You're walking again. I can fix that."

"Yes, I know. You're the strongest one there is...physically. Though I'm not sure about that anymore. But _my_ power lies in another area."

Xavier placed his fingers on the temples of his head to concentrate on getting through to the root of his rage and anger right now. _'Im-impossible...the Hulk's mind has always been unique...difficult to control. But I've never encountered anything like this. The rage...like an elemental force. I can't overcome it. And the feedback is enveloping everyone. Good Lord, what he endured on that planet...weakened. Enslaved. The trials he faced...unimaginable. And yet he found happiness. Friends, a kingdom, a wife. A child on the way. So why is he...oh.'_

Everyone soon felt the emotions of all that he had endured. Rage, comfort, happiness, despair, and revenge. Naruto had seen what he had told them about, but feeling what he had felt was a whole 'nother thing entirely. But what hit him the most, was the despair. The despair of losing his city, his newfound people, and his wife and unborn child. He himself had felt it when Granny Tsunade and Pa Fukasaku told him that Nagato had killed Jiraiya while gathering Intel on the Akatsuki. He felt angry and sadness after that day and he couldn't accept the fact that his Godfather, the only true family he had left was now gone, leaving him alone once more. It was Iruka and Shikamaru that had helped recover from the ordeal and he wanted to become strong enough to defeat Nagato and so he did. But ultimately he wouldn't kill him. He couldn't do it for the sake of what Jiraiya had taught him and he didn't regret not striking Nagato down.

Now the Hulk had those same feeling, but it was the rage that conquered overall, Naruto heard that he was a hero several times in the past after doing some more research in the last couple of days. He hoped that Hulk would come to the same conclusion to not kill them, but that rage may say otherwise, if anything he would tell him to not kill them for vengeance, but seek justice instead and do it the right way...if he even got the chance to do, as it didn't look that way.

The Hulk looks around and saw that all the Mutants had collapsed to the ground and were rubbing their heads, trying to get over the rush of memories and emotions. "You all saw that, huh? Xavier's pals did that to me."

Xavier tried to reason with him, wanting to stop further bloodshed. "Hulk...Bruce...Reed and the others sent you into space, yes. But the bomb that destroyed your city...I can't imagine them ever doing such a thing. But I don't know. I wasn't with them when they made their plans."

Hulk looked back at Xavier and started walking towards him and stopped just a few feet before him. "I know. But according to what I beat out of Black Bolt, you were supposed to be. You were one of the guys they decided was smart enough to play God. To decide what to do with me...with me...like I'm a rabid dog. So I'm asking you a question. If you'd been there, when they were debating whether to ruin my life...how would you have voted?"

Xavier finished getting over the rush of emotions of the Hulk and looked into his eyes to see that he could tell if he would lie to his face. A most unwise decision. "Answer me, Xavier. When Iron Man, Dr Strange, Black Bolt, and Reed Richards decided to shoot me into space like trash...to destroy my life...you were supposed to be there. And I want to know how you would have voted."

Xavier had been asked by Iron Man a few days ago back in his office. He answered honestly to Stark and now he was reminiscing on all the decisions he had made that now came back to haunt him. Emma cut in on his thoughts and urged him to resist. _"Charles? Let me give you a hint: 'No'."_

_"I can speak for myself, Emma."_

The Hulk was getting impatient, he still needed to collect the other members of the Illuminati. "Two seconds. Then I start smashing."

"Forgive me, Bruce. I'm not avoiding the question. It's just that this seems to be a theme lately. Decisions I made in the past coming back to haunt me." Vulcan came to his mind out of the recent mistakes. Cyclops still was rather angry at him with why he had done, and while he didn't like with what his teacher/father-figure had done, he listened to Xavier's words as he saw the face a man who had regretted what he had done with his life. Perhaps he had been too hard on the Professor with what he had done so long ago. "Decisions I thought served the greater good. Of Humanity, of Mutantkind...of those I loved. But that I now realize were wrong, whether they turned out well or badly...because I made them unilaterally. Arrogantly presumed I knew best."

The Hulk listened to what he said and even though Xavier's face was a little downcast, he still saw that he was speaking the truth. Xavier finally looked straight into the Hulk's eyes and gave him the same answer that he had given Iron Man. "The honest answer is this. I wouldn't have agreed to exile you forever. But I would have voted to send you away while we searched for a cure."

The Hulk was honestly surprised by the man's honesty, he thought he would've lied straight to his face, but he didn't. And he was caught off guard once again by what Xavier said next. "You're right; I _have_ been guilty of playing God. And there's nothing I can do to make up for it. But perhaps I can atone. I'll surrender willingly."

The Hulk respected Xavier for laying it out like a man. While he was still pissed that he would've voted to say yes in shooting him into space, he acknowledged the man's integrity and will to try and make up for what he did, whatever it was...Xavier would get off easy, as opposed to the other Illuminati members in his mind. "Smart move. Don't know worry. You'll have Stark and the others to keep you company soon." The Hulk reached out to take Xavier back to his ship and wait when the 24 hour mark hit, but he was stopped by the strong kid again. "Yeah sorry 'bout this Big 'n' Green, but while Old Man X said he'd surrender and all, _we_ on the other hand, don't agree with the whole surrender thing."

The Astonishing X-Men made a line with Naruto between the Hulk and Xavier, each of them resolved to defend the man to the last breath. "This is insane. Stop blocking my power, Emma."

"Stop trying to make us back off, Charles." Emma rebutted.

"This really how you want it? All of you?" The Hulk only wanted Xavier, but he wanted to smash something right now though. That, and he wanted to get some payback in the kid that burnt his skin and punched him so damn hard.

Cyclops looked at Xavier, and with the look he had on his face, and the words he heard his mentor speak to a man more than likely ready to kill him, he forgave him. But not entirely, he still felt disappointment, but no longer anger. He turned back to the Hulk with steeled resolve. "All of us."

"Good."

"NO!" Emma grabbed Xavier and held him back to keep the rest of the team going at the Hulk. He raised his fists high into the air prepared to crush the X-Men, but as he brought them down, he was stopped by Naruto as he grabbed both of his fists and held them in place as Colossus grabbed Wolverine and fell back a ways to prep a Fastball special, Kitty sank into the ground to avoid getting crushed and Lockheed was burning away at the Hulk from behind. Cyclops was already tuning his visor to let loose his maximum power on him to keep him off balance and give the others an opening as Naruto was beginning to buckle under the Hulks fists and the ground was starting to crumble a bit from where he stood.

_'Kami, dammit! Is he getting stronger or something?!'_ Naruto already saw a glow of red behind him and figured that Slim had already had enough of this crap and wanted the Hulk off the school grounds. Not only that, he felt that what the Hulk was doing was wrong, so...Naruto did something that threw everyone off their original game plan. He channeled a massive amount of chakra throughout his body and threw the Hulk's arms into the air surprising the green king once again, just how this kid was able to keep up with his own strength, and he wondered just where it came from.

Naruto launched himself towards the Hulk and, at the very least tried to grab the Hulk around his waist, but he only got a bit and with a little help from Kokou, he lifted himself and the Hulk up into the air and away from the school letting the X-Men tend to the students.

* * *

-Dr Strange-

* * *

Dr Strange had been watching the young man and the X-Men fight with the Hulk in his astral form. He knew that the boy was capable of, and knew that he could stop the Hulk if he wished, but from what he was seeing, the boy was holding back immensely. He saw that he was trying to subdue the Hulk without going all out, which meant one of two things. He was afraid to show his full power out in the open and draw some vastly unnecessary attention to himself, or that he wanted to talk him out of it. Strange continued to watch as the boy cleverly made several clones of himself and hid them as he stood several feet away from the downed Hulk now getting up from the crater that they both created.

* * *

-Naruto vs the Hulk: Round 1-

* * *

Naruto got up immediately and had his clones hide out of sight to help get some sneak attacks and feints in on the one-on-one fight against the behemoth.

When he felt the rush of emotions and memories of the Hulk when Xavier tried to see why he was after him, it was so familiar when Naruto was trying to rip out the Tailed Beasts from Obito, and he felt what his dreams were, his emotions...happiness and despair. Becoming Hokage, and cradling Rin's lifeless body in his arms and giving up on humanity and its future.

The Hulk was getting all the more pissed off at the kid...he was able to keep up with him though, which made this all the more interesting, he hadn't a good fight in a while. "Heh, not bad kid...but now you're as good as smashed without the others to help."

"No, see I decided to take the fight away from everyone since odds are the only I can fight you is if I don't hold back. And I'm bettin' that you yourself were holding back too."

"Not bad kid...yeah, I'm reserving it all for Stark, Strange and Richards. This could've been a lot simpler if you mutants just gave me Xavier, but now you just fucked things up for yourself."

"I don't think so, so now that we both know we were holding back, we can stop with the insults of one another. Also, I think the way you're doing this is wrong."

The Hulk raised an eyebrow at that statement. It sounded like he almost agreed with him about the Illuminati. Naruto kept on talking after seeing the Hulk pause for a bit, "You make it sound like you want revenge on the world, but what I think you want is justice. You didn't come out across the world and tell everyone your story just to make them fear for their lives. You wanted the world to see what they did to you, and you want them to get punished. But Xavier is innocent in all of this."

Normally the Hulk would've just gone and decided to start fighting this kid, but something kept him from doing so. "His answer is what got him in this position. He would've played God, just like the rest of the trash if he was at the meeting."

"But he wasn't. He's a man who's already suffered too much after a lotta things coming back to bite him in his ass. He shouldn't be guilty of shooting you into space and planting a bomb, which I'm still not totally convinced the others did. But regardless. Old Man X is innocent."

"Then I guess we better stop talking, and start fighting."

"Yeah...I guess so..."

Naruto and the Hulk stared each other down for what seemed like an hour, but it was only minutes that had passed by. Each gauging one another for weak points in their defense, they were seasoned fighters the both of them.

Naruto made the first move as he jumped into the air and weaved the signs in quick succession: Rat➡ Ox➡ Dog➡ Horse➡ Monkey➡ Boar➡ Tiger. "Fire Style: Majestic Demolisher!"

A massive flame burst from Naruto's mouth that practically consumed the Hulk and covered the place in flames. Naruto knew that wouldn't be enough to take him down...but piss him off?

"RRRAAGGHHH!" Yeah, definitely...the Hulk ran out of the flames and immediately was able to grab on to Naruto and attempted to crush him, only to find that he now was hiding on to a log that suddenly appeared in a puff of smoke. The Hulk's skin was burned and his hair was gone, eventually it grew back due to his healing factor.

_'Thank Kami and the Holy Log.'_

A NaruClone came out and sped up to the Hulk with two kunai in hand ready to start dealing damage to him and was able to get a few good slices in underneath his arm, only to get swatted away and dispelled as he went through several trees.

_'Damn! I gotta boost up their defenses against captain steroids.'_

Two more NaruClones shot out and grappled with him as the original gathered up chakra for a Giant Rasengan, they got punched back, but they didn't get dispelled like the last one. They amscrayed to let another NaruClone underneath the Hulk give the big man a surprise. A hand shot out from underneath the Hulk's foot and grabbed him, ensuring that he wouldn't catch on he initiated the Jutsu immediately.

"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!"

The Hulk was pulled down all the way down into the ground to his surprise, leaving only his head above the surface. Naruto then leapt up into the air and had a Rasengan the size of the Hulk's own body surprising him even more. "Giant Rasengan!"

"You think this can take me down!" The Hulk then managed to smash away the ground and was able to grab the Rasengan that threatened to deal massive damage to him, surprising Naruto. _'He was able to grab it! Holy shit!'_

The Rasengan was still active, and was damaging the Hulk's skin already, the longer he held on to it. One NaruClone had come up behind the Hulk and jammed two kunai directly into his back, getting the Hulk to loosen his grip on the Rasengan a bit, and the NaruClone decided to weaken him a bit more like Pain did with him. "Gakido." The NaruClone immediately felt the gamma energy begin to leave the Hulk, but it seemed that he had as much gamma energy as Naruto did chakra, putting them in a bit of a stalemate.

Though the Hulk caught on to his plan and swung the Rasengan to his back, getting the NaruClone to lose his grip on the kunai by accident and slammed it right into him, dispelling the orb that exploded whilst sending the Hulk back a few feet and on to his back once more. This was getting kinda fun for him. He hadn't had a good fight in a while...

Naruto unsealed the Executioner's Blade from a seal on his arm and ran straight towards the Hulk, not wanting to give him time to recover and slashed at the green giant carving a deep laceration on his chest with green blood pouring through. The Hulk, very ballsily grabbed the sword's sharp edge with his palm, and threw it over his head. Naruto still had his grip on the sword and as it imbedded in the ground, Naruto perched himself on the hilt of the blade.

_'Damn...he's just not going down, even with my Jutsu doing some major damage to him. Even if he's not showing it, he's feeling it.'_ Naruto saw that his feints and tricks were only doing so much, he needed to end this fight fast, and the only way he saw that more than likely would work in both and against his favor, was straight up fist-to-fist combat. But he wanted to try talking to him one last time...once more unto the breach.

"Why don't you just stop? You're not gonna win against me buddy."

The Hulk got back up on his feet and stared the kid down at what he said. "Says you, kid. But I'm not gonna stop, not until Xavier's suffered as much as I have."

Then a thought hit Naruto's head. "You wanna talk about suffering, then I'll show you suffering." Naruto disappeared from his sight and then he felt a very heavy and punishing kick to his back. Not enough to break his spine, but enough to send him flying into the sky, back towards the Institute and right behind it where the graveyard was. The rest of the staff and students were recovering in the med-bay, and felt the earth quake from up above them.

Naruto arrived soon and landed perfectly after using some of Chomei's chakra to grow some wings to fly quickly before the Hulk could take his rage out again, and landed right in front of the Hulk. "You wanna to see suffering, then look right in front of you." The Hulk got back up on his feet and saw the graves in front of him. He stared at them as Naruto walked around each of them and talked. "Each of these kids had dreams and lives of their own. But their dreams were cut down when they lost their powers on M-Day, and nothing could be done to give it back to them. They were human, like any other person in the world. But then they were killed when some Mutant hating bastard shot a rocket and blew them up in a bus when they were going home to their families. Just like your wife and your city was blown up."

Then Naruto turned to the Hulk with steeled eyes and resolve and got right in his face. "So don't ever say that we haven't suffered like you have. Don't come back here starting a fight with us again, because I guarantee you, you will lose. This place is all we have left and you're trying to take whatever happiness we have left. Especially when Old Man X had nothing to do with that bomb. We'll fight you to the last man standing, no matter what to keep our happiness and peace left on the planet."

Some of the X-Men had arrived topside and heard the talking he gave the Hull. They had to give Naruto the credit for getting ballsy, right into the Hulk's face like that. No one really dared to do that unless they had a death wish. The Hulk took in his words and acknowledged what he was getting at. He ultimately was a hypocrite in this whole situation, he was trying to destroy what happy little place in the world they had left. The Hulk then walked back out, off the school grounds and to his ship, he still had to deal with the Illuminati later tonight. He walked past the few X-Men that came up to see the scene, including Xavier himself as he felt that he still needed to atone, but it seemed as now he didn't need to. He heard Naruto spoke one last time before he left, "One last thing before you leave...if you really are convinced of going through with this whole thing...then don't kill them. Revenge turns you into a nasty thing, you become someone you don't even recognize, and then you'll be in Hell. Remember what I said about justice and revenge." He stopped momentarily as he spoke, and then went back to walking to his ship.

The Hulk turned his head back to Xavier just a tad to make sure he heard his words. "You consider this your fault, Xavier. And my guess is, you should. You're already living in Hell." He jumped high into the air, and back to his ship over Manhattan, and wait for the deadline to be up.

He made it back to his ship after fighting off the Gamma Corps that tried to ambush and bring him down, and they failed unfortunately. Elloe had been on the ship's exterior to help him if he needed it and saw a massive scar that had made itself noticeable on his chest. The wound had healed, but the scar was still present and would more than likely be permanent. "King, you've been in battle! Are you...?"

"I'm fine. Leave me alone." He left to go to his chambers to rest for the time being after the fight with the white haired boy. He wanted to fight him again, but he would do it at a later time, and when he was able to challenge him. He sat back down on his throne and pondered the boy's words about justice and revenge...he wouldn't kill them, no...now, he would ensure that they lived, but he would make sure that no one forgot what kind of people they were.

_**Winner: No One.**_

* * *

-Xorn's Hideout-

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Xorn asked in curiosity of what Shin thought of the fight between the Hulk and Naruto that he had Magus record from the shadows of the mansion and the forest.

"He certainly is as they say. The Savior of the Shinobi World..." Xorn turned from the monitor's to the cage where the Predator X lye in rest after clawing around the place, trying to get out of the cage to feast on the Mutants of the outside world. "And this is a masterpiece of evolution and genetic manipulation. But why have it hunt down mutants?"

"You see, Naruto had already killed the one that should've been out and about right now, feasting on mutants and evolving. But now I have to take matters into my own hands and ensure that the histories of this Earth, and follow another Earth's own history, or at least make it a history very like the other. His presence in this reality has shifted the course of it's original history and a new reality has been created as a result, much like many other realities have been created in the same manner. Though that doesn't mean we can't take advantage of the shift in history at all." Xorn turned to the stand that had several surgical tools next to an operating table, and the wall was lined with many Sharingan eyes all still perfectly preserved in liquid in slim jars. "So...shall we get started?"

"Yes. Let's begin the procedure."

Shin took off his clothes save for a layer of wrappings that kept his dignity, and was now showing his bare skin, and the stump of his right arm. Xorn then prepared himself accordingly with his own medical clothing, but he kept his mask on and was now prepared to begin the procedure. Though, he wanted to ask him one more thing before starting. "Are you sure you don't want me to give you a new arm? I can always have Magus grow you a new one for you and it'll preform even better than a regular organic one."

"No, it's fine. Besides if I'm correct about my body and those Sharingan, then it'll be better for me this way instead." Shin said to his surgeon, but he had one last thing to say. "Oh, and no anesthesia."

"Are you sure about that? This procedure is going to be very painful, considering what I'm about to do."

"Yes. If I'm going to become strong enough to combat some of these people. Then I must endure pain like this."

Xorn paused for a bit until he spoke again, "...very well, let's begin." Xorn picked up a jar and unscrewed the cap for in a few minutes, he'd need it. He picked up the tools he needed to cut open flesh and dig through it, and started the painful process, with Shin now gritting his teeth in pain. He would become stronger than the heroes of this dimension in order to usher in a far more evolved era, as the Shinobi world would follow suit.

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

Naruto then helped his teammates heal after the ordeal and he got several pats on the back, along with fists bumps, high fives, etc. for being able to take the Hulk one-on-one and survived. He said that he didn't win, but rather they both held back and they ended stalemating. As night fell they watched the island get evacuated on CNN, and saw that the Avengers were preparing to fight the Hulk. Naruto wanted to know what they were thinking. Taking the Hulk on was no joke, especially after going against him, he knew that he was holding back and he had one hell of a time trying to bring him down.

* * *

-The Sanctum; Home of Dr Strange, Sorcerer Supreme of Earth-

* * *

Strange had watch Naruto's fight and talk with the Hulk, and saw how he was able to beat him. It seemed that they boy would not help them, and now things fell into their own hands, or perhaps not. Perhaps something would trigger the boy to come to their aid, but it would be a long time before he came to help. He prepared things accordingly and had Iron Fist, Ronin, and Echo to support him as he made the enchantments to obscure himself and their base of operations for the New Avengers from the government and its registered Mighty Avengers as they once hid in secrecy.

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

Everyone was back in the mansion, either tending to their studies, sleeping, or watching the news cast as night fell and the world watched as the Hull began his rampage across New York City. Iron Man had built a massive Hulkbuster armor to take him on, and was able to subdue him for a bit, but the Hulk threw him through Avengers Tower and brought the whole top of it down to the ground with the Hulk the victor. Now Naruto saw that this was the Hulk going all out, and knew that it was a good idea to keep his trump cards out of the Hulk's sight.

The Mighty and the New Avengers went to fight him, but they ended up fighting his Warbound instead, one of them tried to immediately attack the invaders but someone from Naruto could tell that might be related to the Hulk wanted to talk him down, but he actually put her down like nothing, like the rest of the Avengers.

_'No mercy huh...?'_

The Fantastic Four tried to calm him down after trying to trick him, but it failed, not even a combination of Fire and Lightning to take him down worked, despite the massive power put into the attack that wiped a whole block out. An orange rock looking dude tried to take him down, but he didn't stand a chance. The Fantastic Four were down for the count.

Naruto couldn't help but feel sorry not for just their pain and defeat, but he felt even worse for the Hulk...this wasn't the kind of justice he was getting at when talked last time to the Hulk. Luckily someone had the same mindset and looked like he was already familiar to the Hulk and wanted to talk him out of it, but someone apparently tried to make a move on the Hulk and failed. He jumped into the sky to shake off the attack and landed in the bay, only to be ambushed by another group of heroes lead by Hercules from Naruto was told.

Now the military began to make their move on him and started firing every gun and missile they had him, he took a tank swung it around smashing others and threw it at a chopper and jumped up to another to smash it, but he began to lose his mind from what it seemed and he reverted to his human form, soon his Warbound came to his aid and protected hum from the fury of the military. But as they came covered him quickly to protect him, he recovered to wipe out the military, eliminating any chance of stopping him.

Dawn came and the Hulk made an arena/prison out of Madison Square Garden, and now Naruto realized what he was going to. Naruto brought some of his tools in case he had to fight the Warbound, though hopefully he didn't have to but best to be prepared. As he went to the doors of the school, he was stopped by Cyclops as he had a feeling that Naruto would go to stop the Hulk, for good this time.

"Are you sure that's wise? Revealing yourself to the world like that? You know you'll garner a lot of attention afterwards, attention that you really don't want."

"You're right, but I won't be fighting the Hulk..." Cyclops raised a brow at that for a bit, but then he saw Naruto form a hand seal for the Transformation Jutsu. "...but _I_ will." Now instead of Naruto, stood the form of Nagato donned in the old Akatsuki cloak minus the red clouds, with the Hidden Rain headband on his forehead, and his Rinnegan activated.

Cyclops looked at him a bit, but then nodded in acceptance of what Naruto was going to do. "All right, take 'em down." He said with a ghost of a smile.

Naruto in the form of Nagato disappeared with the Body Flicker Jutsu out of his sight and made his way to New York City with all the speed he could muster and stayed out of sight, as much as he could.

He arrived as he saw that the Hulk's ship was just over the arena but allowed light to enter down into the hole he made with his bare hands. He needed to take down the ship first before anything else, so he went into Toad Sage Mode to see if anyone was still up in there, though luckily no one was on board and it looked like everyone was down in the arena, so...now it came down to the how.

_"Hmmm...I could use the Magnet Style to bring it down."_

_**"That would be a load to take down. It would work, but it would take too long to move the thing down into the water."**_

_"Well...what about Chibaku Tensei, then push it out to the ocean with Shinra Tensei?"_

_**"That could work even better, though you'll need to make Shadow Clones to do that."**_

_"Easy."_ Naruto made the hand sign for his Shadow Clones and made two of them to take the ship down when the original gave them the signal. Naruto edged up to the rim of the hole on top of MSG. He saw that they had made several sections separate from one another; one for the captured heroes, one for prisoners, one for the aliens, and for the other crackpot believers in the Hulk, though calling them crackpot was a bit of an overstatement. Though now he heard that they were about to begin whatever it was the Hulk had in mind.

_**"Welcome to the Great Arena! You who followed the Hulk Sakaar...you who came to celebrate his victories here on Earth...and you who dared raise your fists against him...now bear witness."**_ Naruto saw that Elloe was on a stage with a mike stand and there were three people behind her obscured a bit by the light. Down below, he saw four men to what Naruto assumed were the Doc, Black Bolt, Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic; they along with the other heroes captured hide some sort of high electrical disk strapped to their chests and would've sent very painful shocks to their bodies. The captured had several guards lined around them to prevent them from escaping, while the human crackpots had signs that cheered in the Hulk, and jeered at the heroes for what they did to him. Naruto focused more intently at Elloe and the people near her. "Black Bolt. Mr. Fantastic. Dr. Strange. Iron Man. These are the four whose shuttle exploded, destroying the crown city of Sakaar."

Mr Fantastic tried to speak, "We didn't plant any bomb. We'd never..." But he was cut off then by the Obedience Disk on his chest. "...AAAHG!"

The Thing and the Invisible Woman practically begged them to stop with the electric torture. "Enough with the Obedience Disks, already!"

"Let him speak, Elloe!"

Elloe spoke back without even turning to them. "Why, Sue Storm? They didn't let the Hulk speak before they shot him into space. They didn't let my mother speak before they incinerated her and a million others."

Mr. Fantastic tried to talk again, but the disk wouldn't let him. "Listen. We didn't-AAARGH!"

Miek stepped forward and motioned for the three people behind Elloe to step into the spotlight. **"No...**_**you**_** listen."**

An elderly looking woman stepped up first to the mike with Elloe stepping back in respect for the people about to speak, as their personal pain was going to be put out in the open; Naruto listened to what they were about to say.

"My name is Clarinda Roberts. I'm here to speak about Black Bolt. Last month, my husband retired. And for the first time in 20 years, I got him to go with me to the Opera House. You probably saw what happened on TV. Black Bolt's people came. They declared war on America. And they tore my husband's head off." Clarinda choked up a bit, but she was able to recompose herself as she was before. "I know what Black Bolt would say. It was a mistake. Those weren't his orders." She put down the paper and then glanced down a bit to the king of the Inhumans who had a metal brace clamped down all around his lower head to keep his voice from be used as a weapon. "I don't care. My husband is dead. And I want that man to pay."

Naruto guessed that Black Bolt's people came down sometime before he even arrived here since he never heard of this 'war'. Next up he saw a man with glasses and dark skin and he brought up his story written down on a piece of paper, and spoke into the mic. "My name's Tom Foster. My uncle was Bill Foster. You probably knew him as Goliath." That grabbed Naruto's attention immediately..._'The same guy that Cyclops told us got killed by that...uhhhh...'_

_**'The Thor clone, made by Stark and Richards.'**_

_'Yeah...'_

"He took the rebels' side during the Super Heroes' Civil War. Because he knew better than to trust anyone who throws in with the government. Tony Stark and Reed Richards cloned Thor. Cloned a God...and used it to kill my uncle. They talk about law. But their laws only seem to apply to people like you and me. I'm ready for the Hulk's law."

Naruto had a far better understanding of what these people were feeling. _'It becomes a cycle of hatred.'_ His mind went back to when he confronted Nagato and Konan after defeating the Six Paths of Pain.

* * *

_-Flashback-_

* * *

_"Do you hate me? Now that you see me before you...you want your revenge don't you?" Nagato spoke to the now somewhat victorious Naruto._

_"If you kill Nagato and get your revenge, that won't change anything. It'll only make you feel better." Konan said while at his side._

_"I...came here to talk to you...but there was something else I wanted to find out, too. I wanted_ to_ see how I would feel...I didn't know how I would feel...if I really saw you in front of me..."_

_"And...?"_

_"And I can't forgive you! I want to kill you so much...I'm trembling!" Naruto subconsciously had his Toad Sage Mode activated with Kurama's own chakra infusing with his own, revealing cross shaped pupils._

_"That Pervy Sage said the day will come when people truly understand one another. He had faith. When he told me that...I wasn't even really paying attention to him...he said he wanted me to find the answer...but I was just glad to have his approval. Now...I finally know what he really meant. It's not that easy..."_

_"But that doesn't change the fact that you can't forgive me. Love and forgiveness can't be bought with petty words."_

* * *

-Now-

* * *

_'It's true that these guys can't make up for what they did, _if_ they did it. They can't simply say "Sorry" and hope that it helps.'_

_**'Do you think you can take on all this reality's hatred? You said once that you'd take it all on and erase it from our own, has your answer changed after seeing this one?' **_Kurama found it curious as to what he was thinking right now as he found the situation similar to what Nagato was getting at about pain.

_'No. My answer hasn't changed, I'll take on this hatred with my friends, with you guys, heck I think I can even get rid of Kaguya's own hatred.'_ That got a skeptical eye roll from Kurama, as he found that woman to be a psycho._ 'But the hatred that all these people have, it's definitely gonna be harder.' _Naruto listened into the last woman's story, he wonders what happened to her. He knew the Doc was a good guy and chatted up with him for a bit when they first met. He didn't even appear, much less seem to be a man that would hurt innocents much less do something that would put them in the line of harm. "Dr. Strange dances with the Devil. He drank the soul of a demon. Nearly killed us all. The seas will run red. Vermin will fall from the skies. A two-headed child will be born. Let the judgement of God be upon you."

_'...' _Naruto just sweat dropped at what she just said, disregarding the first part about Strange._** 'Ok, you know what, all the people dressed like her, are all hippie crackpots. I am not going to say anything else on the matter, and I stand by on what I just said.'**_

Naruto shook his head and put his attention back down in the arena. The Hulk got up from his makeshift throne and walked towards a massive metallic cage that was closed at every point and had a large bolt that kept the door shut right next to the four prisoners, and some to them. "Don't like it, do you? It's not the whole story. You have excuses. Explanations. You're _innocent_. These people don't know what really happened. They don't know what's in your heart." He got up to the lock on the door and prepared to let what lay inside loose on the men. "Now you know how it feels. And now..." He pulled the bolt off the door, and revealed a massive creature that almost killed the Hulk back Sakaar. It was pink and had multiple eyes on its head, legs that shot on the sides of its body, had tentacles with barbed ends for tongues, and a massive maw that was lined with razor sharp teeth. "HRRLLLLAAAAAAA!" The men moved immediately away from the alien animal towards the opposite side of the arena.

"...you're gonna find out how _this_ feels. The day your shuttle dumped me on Sakaar, I was weakened. Captured. Enslaved. Thrown into an arena to fight for my life against monsters like these..." The creature moved against the men who were practically defenseless against it. The creature shot out one of its tentacles towards Stark, but Reed intercepted the tentacle and blocked with his elastic limbs. "Watch out, Tony!"

"Trying to summon my armor...but this Obedience Disk won't let me...Strange! Use your magic!"

"The Hulk crushed my hands. My spells won't..." Strange was cut off as a tentacle grabbed him and the barbs grazed his already weakened body, "...GAAAH!"

The Hulk just looked on at those struggle, "...and I thought of you the whole time."

Stark found a discarded sword and used it slice off the tentacle that grabed Strange. "Hold on, Stephen!" That made the animal roar in pain. "MRRRAAAAWWWWWWWW!" Though it was cut off as Black Bolt was able to maneuver himself behind the creature and stabbed it in the head with a lance.

The creature slumped dead to the ground and Black Bolt got off the back and stood alongside the other prisoners.

The Hulk now stood next to another container, but it was much smaller. "Well done. On mu second day on Sakaar, they took me to the Maw. A gladiatorial training school. They threw me into a pit with a bunch of other slaves." He then lifted the door knob on the container and spilt out the tons of weapons and armor from within. "And they told us to kill each other."

Naruto widened his eyes at what the Hulk was forcing them to do. _'This is just cruel torture and punishment, this isn't justice.'_

A robotic guard gave a staff to Elloe and she took it as it gave her control over the ones with the Obedience Disks. "Choose your weapons.

Reed looked back at her in defiance. "Never."

"Do it, slave." She triggered the staff's ability and their whole lit up like fire and gave them unimaginable pain. "AAAAAARRRRGHH!"

Hiroim with a now lost left limb due to combat with Strange, told them that it was useless to resist. "It's no use. In the great arena of Sakaar, not even the Silver Surfer could fight his Obediance Disk."

Stance looked back at the Shadow Priest. "Hiroim...now it's you...who goes too far..."

He simply smiled in acceptance of what the Sorcerer Supreme said. "Aye, Strange. May the Prophet forgive us and embrace us all."

They really had no choice but to comply, they took their weapons and began to start hacking away at one another.

Sue and Ben tried to reach out to Reed to resist. "Reed!" But the disks were so painful. "GRRAAAA!"

The crowd began to get wild with excitement of the fight...damn crackpot hippies...they started spouting a bunch of crap.

"Whoo!"

"Yeah!"

"Bite 'em!"

"Kick 'em!"

"Kill, kill, kill!"

"Bleeeeed!"

"Kill!"

"Throw 'em in the crowd!"

Rick Jones, the Hulk's very first and best friend was in Las Vegas when the Hulk hit New York. After seeing his hologram on TV, he needed to head to New York to talk some sense back into his friend and stop this before it got to this point. He tried three times already, and he failed so far, but he wasn't going to give up on his friend. He tried to go to Dr Strange before the Hulk's Warbound came, but he was too late. When Strange was defeated he came to the arena to try again to talk with the Hulk, but the bug Miek tried to contradict and call him a traitor to the Hulk, several times in fact, which got him wondering about the bug's own intentions. He watched in horror of the heroes battled each other to the death.

Naruto was gripping his hands in anger. This was wrong. This was nothing about justice, this was some form of 'light' revenge. No one was dead yet, but the moment something like that happened, then that's when he'd step in and stop everything.

They continued to battle one another, and they tries to get the Hulk's machines to turn on him and stop the disks, but it backfired and they pushed them back on the heroes.

Black Bolt and Strange took themselves down to end the violence quickly, by then all came down to Reed and Stark. Reed had Tony pinned down with a shield keeping him from killing him, Reed was just about to kill Tony, but he resisted to pull the final strike. Naruto now knew that this was it. This was the moment that would decide for him to either step him and svae them, or stay out and let things go on without him.

The Hulk just looked on with focus. "How, 'bout that...looks like we're all monsters now." The crowd was now yelling out for the end blow like on wrestling. "Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"

"NO!" Reed was resisting with all his willpower, with a mace above his head.

Miek approached the Hulk with the control staff in hand. **"Green King...what do you say? Thumbs up, he lives. Thumbs down, he dies."** The Hulk raised his hand in a gesture that could go either way, Naruto raised his hand to give the signal to the clones to take down the ship. The crowd was now livid with excitement, or at least the crackpots were. "Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Both men above and below the arena had the hands ready to go, now it came down to the Hulk to decide the course of this story. And his thumb...went down.

* * *

-Naruto vs the Hulk: Round 2-

* * *

Naruto's hand gave the signal to the clones. One had the core ready, and the other behind him to help implode the ship and push it out to the sea.

"Chibaku Tensei." The first NaruClone threw the core up to the ship and it shot through the hull and the process began.

As soon as the hull began to show massive visible signs of being destroyed, everyone in the arena turned their attention towards the sky. The ship soon began to twist, turn and crumble into a ball and stayed in place for a moment until the second NaruClone shoved it out to sea. "Shinra Tensei." He pushed both his hands outwards and the ball of steel and alien tech was shot to the sea with such a fast pace, people were flabbergasted by what had happened.

"This isn't justice like I told you about. This is revenge." A new voice that the Hulk didn't recognize had come out of nowhere and the source was now right behind him. The Hulk spun around to smash his fists down on whoever it was, but only saw gravel, then he felt someone perched up in his right shoulder like a monkey on a tree limb. He turned and was greeted with a very powerful foot to the face, that sent him through the arena as well as another building and he stopped after some rubble collapsed on him.

He pushed it off of him and saw the kid from Xavier's again. He had to give the kid guts, coming back for seconds. Though now, he wouldn't hold back on his account. "You don't want this fight kid."

"Yes. I do. I thought you weren't going for revenge like I told you, that you shouldn't take a life to satisfy yourself. You kill them, then their families will hate you, and say that they kill you, those Warbound guys will kill them, and all that hate will go back and forth between the people. A never ending cycle of hatred and violence. I honestly thought you were better than that, but I guess I was wrong. I'm not gonna kill you or those Warbound guys, but I'm gonna beat your ass down." Naruto had dropped the disguise in front of the Hulk and now had his clones create a barrier to keep any prying eyes away from his true form. He also had a special seal that he made on the fly that would make him appear as Nagato to others with the exception of the Hulk, since he figured now he could go all out against the Hulk like this.

Naruto immediately went into his Tailed Six Paths Sage Mode and decided to release the First Gate, he needed all of his strength against the Hulk in this situation. "Eight Inner Gates Formation: First Gate - Gate of Opening; Open!" The same sensation flooded his body and he was far stronger. "And besides, it's been a while since I've had a real fight against someone like you. Someone who can really push me to my limits." Naruto cracked his knuckles in anticipation for the next few minutes of fist-to-fist combat, as he believed that this was the only way to bring the guy down. Naruto threw a punch straight into the Hulk's gut a second later and he was shot threw another building and into another, once again he landed down inside with rubble on top of him.

The Hulk was about to turn off the disks on the Illuminati and state that they didn't come to kill anyone, but show the world that they were liars, traitors, and murderers. But now, well...guess he was gonna fight again. He pushed it off of him and had an irritated face on him, but inside he was grinning like a mad man, ready to dig into a fat and jolly meal. "All right. STARK! RICHARDS! STRANGE! ALL OF YOU! NEVER FORGET! WHATEVER HAPPENS NEXT...IS ON YOUR HEADS!" The heroes heard the Hulk yell over the vast distance, but there was nothing they could do to go outside as they found there was some sort of invisible barrier preventing anyone from going past the hole that the Hulk was punched through.

The Hulk reeled his right arm to punch Naruto, who was now flying towards him with inhuman speeds and their fists smashed against one another. Sending shockwaves throughout the city, shattering whatever glass was left on the buildings. Hulk got a left hook into Naruto's fave but he didn't flinch at all and took another punch to the face from his right fist. Naruto threw his left fist right to the Hulk's jaw, making it dislocate a bit. And then brought both his arms together, clamping his fists and brought them down on the Hulk's head, slamming him face first into the ground. The Hulk got back up and kneed him in the chin almost shattering it, had it not have been for his cloak protecting him. Even Bushy and Bushier Brows with the Gates released would've had the jaws completely blown to dust by this dude. The Hulk then grabbed Naruto in an attempt to crush his skull, but Naruto got out of his grip and rammed his head straight into the Hulk's ribs, cracking a couple of them. Naruto kicked the Hulk away and flew right at him.

Back at the stadium, everyone was wondering just who was it that was pushing the Hulk so far, as the only person that could go up against him and live. The Sentry. But he was back in his home in Washington state, Stark and Richards were going to go ask him to help out to fight the Hulk, but when Strange had mentioned that there was someone who could help, they digressed and believed Stephen already asked someone else, someone stronger than the Sentry to fight the Hulk. Perhaps they should've talked to Strange beforehand on who he was but now he wouldn't as he did not want to betray this person's trust.

Now, back with Naruto and the Hulk...Naruto was floating above the Hulk a ways from out of reach and was readying two end this fight for good. "You can't believe how good this feels. To go all out and not worry at all about accidentally killing someone, I mean, guys like us can't get a good fight, much less a work out." Naruto shot at the Hulk and delivered a drop kick combined with and Earth Style Jutsu. "Earth Style: Weighted Boulder Jutsu!"

The kick slammed right on to the Hulk's forehead and he reeled back a bit from the blow. His skull cracked a bit and his blood started to pour through his nostrils, while Naruto hadn't broken a sweat, but he had patches of blood on his face, and his right eye was bruised a bit. But this didn't stop either of the two warriors. The Hulk brought his left fist to punch Naruto; the blow connected but Naruto batted his arm away with his Boil Style: Unrivalled Strength, he then shot his own left arm towards the Hulk's shoulder to try and immobilize him, but the Hulk actually caught the fist to his surprise and he threw a left jab into his face along with a few more to boot.

Eventually they found themselves back in the arena after fighting throughout the city for so long, or at least in their eyes, but to the heroes it had been a few minutes, and now the people inside were watching them exchange blows to one another.

"All systems online, Director Stark. Weapons primed and awaiting your command." Iron Man had been getting back into the weapon satellites that the Hulk had brought under his control, and was going to take the Hulk down with one shot combined with them all. But Strange told him to hold off and wait for the one that was fighting the Hulk to finish with him and see who the victor was beforehand.

Both Naruto and the Hulk exchanged blows until the Hulk was back to being Bruce Banner, but Naruto still stayed Naruto in his eyes, but to everyone else they just saw a crimson haired man with strange purple rippled eyes in a black cloak of sorts with a headband and not a scratch in him.

Eventually Bruce was just garbed in a tattered pair of pants, stumbling to stand, and Naruto transformed into Nagato standing above him in a calm composure. "Do you feel better now?"

Bruce nodded slowly, and all the people inside, crackpots, alien, heroes, and Warbound just stared in awe of what this man just did.

Bruce turned back to Rick is first friend, who walked over to welcome him back home. But Miek was now confused, **"Who...where's the Hulk?"**

Hiroim clarified this for him. "You look upon him. Within each of us live the World Breaker, who destroys all...and the Sakaarson, who redeems the world. Today. Finally...the Hulk knows who he is."

Rick was now right in front of Bruce who had an outstretched arm for a handshake between friends, earning a small smile from Naruto..."Bruce...welcome home." Rick said. But then Naruto felt a massive killing I tent from the big roach. **"No...you're not done yet! Come back to us, Hulk!" **Miek attempted to stab Rick right through the heart, but Naruto instantly shoved it off course and swatted him on the head with the Gunbai. He grabbed the spear and thrust it downwards to Mieals leg earning him to scream in pain **"AAGHH!"**

Naruto brought Miek up to his face and demanded of him..."Why? Why did you want the Hulk back out? What were you hoping to get out of this?"

Miek looked back into Naruto eyes and saw that he was going to kill him if he didn't answer. No, he wanted the Hulk to be the one to do it and no one else, but he complied nonetheless. **"**_**'Never stop making them pay.' **_**That's what the Hulk taught me. That's why I killed them. That's why he must kill me..."**

"Wait, 'Them'? Who's them?" Though he already had a pretty good idea of who 'Them' was.

**"I watched the Red King's people that the Hulk spared after killing him, load an old Warp Core onto the shuttle that brought him to Sakaar. They thought it would kill him. But I knew...it would just remind him of what he was made for."**

Now Naruto was pissed, what this guy did was fucking genocide! Deliberately! And even his own people! This was, "...unforgivable. This is unforgivable! You killed your own people?! For what gain?!"

**"We all must die one day. All this passing, so the next thing can come...so the World Breaker...can finally make an end."** Naruto instantly felt a rage unlike before from the Hulk, he needed to out the rage down quick, but the amount of chakra he would have to expend for a Genjutsu strong enough to knock him out would be massive. Though luckily he heard a feminine voice that he recognized instantly after talking to her a few weeks ago.

_"I can loan you some of my chakra to put him to sleep, if you want the help of course."_

_'Wait, you were watching the fight and hearing everything this whole time?'_

_"I _can_ see _and_ hear everything you do from in you like those animals in here. Though they don't know I can, another thing with the seal that my son had probably done. Best if it stays that way."_

_'Yeahyeahyeahyeah. I need to borrow some chakra please! Really quickly!'_

_"Don't get so tight nit over this all right, just be calm and let me do the work since taking someone down like this with Genjutsu requires someone with more, _experience_."_

Naruto instantly felt his mind recede back for a split second but then he returned back to the world and saw that Bruce who was now slowly transforming back from the Hulk, had now passed out from the ocular induced Genjutsu.

Now everyone in the arena were slack jawed after seeing someone just stare into the Hulk and make him calm down. Soon the man walked out of the arena and was about to leap off to wherever, but he stopped momentarily and made one last comment. "Stark, Richards. If either one of you try to come look for me or try to replicate some sort of experiment involving me or my powers..." He turned ever so slightly to show his eyes that he meant business for what he said next. "...or I'll beat you within an inch of your life. If the Hulk was able to defeat you, and I was able to defeat the Hulk...well, you're both smart men, I'm sure you can figure it out yourselves." The man then disappeared in a flash of black and vanished leaving everyone, and especially Iron Man and Mr Fantastic fearful of this man. Strange however knew that he would come to help them, but he also knew that he didn't truly mean it, but he wanted to convey the message 'Don't come looking for me. Or else...'

_**Winner: Naruto.**_

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

Naruto had teleported to a kunai that was in his room on his dresser. He dispelled everything and had decided that he needed a lot of sleep, lots, and lots of it…

* * *

_**Damn! This didn't take as long as I thought it would. I asked my friend Forgottenkami to beta this new chapter as I felt extremely nervous since I wanted to do the fight between Naruto and the Hulk justice, as well as throw in a few other things to add to the story. So next up will be Blinded by the Light. I know I said I was gonna do Messiah CompleX next, but this arc will introduce the Marauders and Mr. Sinister who will play significant parts later in Messiah CompleX. So until next time, continue to favorite, follow, read and review this story. And please give me an actual review rather than saying "Good chapter" or something so simple. While I do appreciate these thngs, it helps me out when there's more to say than simple things. Please tell me what you guys have both liked and disliked about the chapter, and the story so far as a whole. These things help me become a far better writer. Oh, and make sure to go to my profile to vote on the poll, as I will be keeping it open for a long time. See ya guys :)**_


	17. Chapter 16: Blinded By the Light Part 1

Chapter 16: Blinded by the Light Part 1

* * *

_**Holy shit, I am so glad a lot of people liked that last chapter. Seriously it was nerve wracking as I felt that I wasn't doing enough justice for the both of them. Anyway, now there will be a brief overview of the aftermath of World War Hulk and in the next two chapters, Naruto will come into contact with the Marauders and catch their eye, as they've never seen anything like him before. So enjoy part one of this arc.**_

* * *

-The Institute; Naruto-

* * *

"Aw maaaaannn...this hurts like hell now..." Naruto practically fell down into his bed once he got back in his room after fighting the Hulk. Ugghh...he didn't really show it, but he was exhausted from the fighting of the day before. He just wanted to sleep the whole damn day...damn the rest of the world, he was owed some peace and quiet for the day...that was until he heard some knocking on the door, which quickly made the ninja pull out a few kunai and shot them through the door, earning a very girly scream from the other side.

Naruto then got up out of his bed and opened the door to see a sweating Santo with his back up against the wall and the kunai outlining the poor kids upper body, Julian and a few other teens were outside his room. More than likely wanting to know all the details of how he fought the Hulk and came out the winner of that fight. "Sorry 'bout that, I just got out of a fight and I really, really wanna take the day for myself."

"Aw come one man! We wanna hear how you kicked the Hulk's ass two times in a row." Santo got out of the sharp line of kunai's making a very deadly body line.

"Yeahyeahyeahyeah! Come on, you gotta tell us, pretty pleeeeeeeease." Megan had a begging puppy dog face on. She did get knocked out with after their first tustle, so she missed out on that. And no one at the mansion was able to watch their second fight, so even the teachers wanted to know how he managed to beat him down.

Naruto let out a massive yawn that would've made Shikamaru damn proud of him. "All right then...just give me a few minutes to actually, you know...wake up and get all this dirt and debris off of me."

* * *

-New Orleans; the French Quarter-

* * *

A certain man in the crowd on Bourbon Street knew a little too much of something, he was talking with someone over his cell phone and was constantly watching his back as he kept on moving through the crowd. "Then let me talk to someone else in the Guild. Please. Whoever I don't care. I did some favors for them a while back. My name's Bill. They used to call me Quiet Bill."

That got the contact's attention, and told him he'd get in touch with them. "Well, you need to tell them I called. It's really important." Bill looked back over his shoulder as he thought there was someone chasing him. He hurried into a backdoor of a hotel that lead through the kitchen and through to the lobby. "They can reach me at this number. Thanks." He was able to get into an elevator filled with several people and it looked like he was scott-free, but someone caught the door at the last second..."Hold the door!" He grabbed the doors before they closed up on him, though once Quiet Bill got a quick look at him before he turned away pretending to be doing something on his phone. "Oops. Only just made it."

The elevator door closed and it ascended up the next few floors with silence on the outside, though once it reached the top floor, the man stepped outside with some blood spot on his face and had a very calm demeanor on it. On the inside of the elevator, everyone inside was dead on the ground, the man now known as Riptide was the one that had done the deed, and placed his hand up on his ear to give the message to his superior. "One down. No complications."

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

"...and that's how it all went down." Naruto had just finished telling the students and a few of the teachers how he and the Hulk threw down. A few of the teachers were wide eyed in the fact that he had managed to beat the Hulk down with just his bare fists, and the kids had their jaws hangin' down. Though Santo decided to say what they all thought he was, "That is awwwwwssoooooommme..."

"Dude, you're in like the freakin' pro league's now dude." Julian said, still trying to wrap his head around what his friend just did.

"Uh, no way Julian, he's like in a whole step above pro league." Megan said as she wiped a bit of drool off the side of her mouth. Didn't want anyone to notice so she just rubbed the whole side of her face like she was getting out of bed, which they all kinda were.

"More like a whole different sport." Santo who quickly got over his stupor quickly pointed out the obvious to everyone.

Naruto soon got the same feeling of when he defeated, Pain back home and everyone hailed him as the Hero of the Hidden Leaf. Eventually he saw that fangirls were eventually stalking him as he went down the temporary streets of the crater that was the village, although he did catch Megan trying to wipe the drool off her face, Naruto chuckled internally a bit at the sight.

Though if anything fighting the Hulk was like fighting against Kurama, he took a lotta hits and could deal out the punishment, but because he was so big, he was limited to what he could do and all he really had was raw power, no skill or tactical prowess like the Fox did. "Eh, it was nothing. Though I really shouldn't be goin' out after that since I gotta feeling that some people are gonna be looking for me. Even after I warned them not to..."

Logan decided to give the ninja his two cents on the whole matter with the Hulk, "Kid, trust me. Takin' on the Hulk ain't nothin'. I've gone up against him a lot, and he ain't that easy to take down, but you did damn good though."

"Thanks, Fuzzybeard."

Logan rolled his eyes at the nickname while a few of the students chuckled at Naruto's new name for the clawed teacher.

Meanwhile Scott had gotten a message from Iceman and his team that was in the field, and they had just re-established contact after dealing with an alien psychic parasite hivemind, that threatened to consume everyone on the planet.

And the closest place was down in Mississippi where one of his teammates had a house down the backwoods of the state, from what they got said that team leader Rogue wasn't doing so well afterwards. Emma and Pete walked with Scott to his office to see how they were doing after hearing how Naruto managed to beat the Hulk down. "Just give me the bottom line, Bobby. How serious is it?"

_"Scott, I wouldn't be talking to you if it wasn't serious. Rogue absorbed 8 billion minds, and her power is out of control."_

"In what sense?"

_"In a 'One-touch-and-you're-stone-cold-dead' sense. But that isn't the half of it. You remember what she was like when she first came to us? After she absorbed Ms Marvel? Well, it's like that, only worse. She's falling apart Scott. I'm scared for her."_

"All right. We're on our way."

_"'We' meaning...?"_

"I'll bring the experts, Bobby. The people she needs to see." Scott turned off the vid-monitor and then turned to Emma and Pete. "Colossus, can you and Kitty mind the shop here?"

Pete nodded in confirmation, it was just the two of them with the New X-Men and the O*N*E Sentinels, so things seemed relatively secure. Well, the Purifier's raid went bad simply because they had hacks, but anyway. "You may count on it, Scott."

"Thanks." He already had Logan and Hank in mind, but he also wanted to bring Naruto to see if he himself could do anything to help Rogue's condition with Creation of All Things. "Emma, can you call..."

"It's done. They're on their way."

_"Assemble in the Blackbird hangar in five minutes, we're heading out."_ Logan, Hank and Naruto each got the call from Emma.

"Well, I guess I could sleep a bit on the way to where ever it is we're going." Naruto really wanted some sleep, but guess when Frosty the Snow-woman calls ya to suit, up. Better do so unless you want to experience some sort of brain torture. "Well guys, guess I got head out with the adults and whatnot for some mission." The students looked downtrodden a bit since they wanted to hear more on what he did that was just as equally as awesome as taking down the Hulk.

Naruto Body Flickered to his room to grab his uniform and anything else that he needed, though he did leave a Flying Raijn kunai with Kit-Kat in case he needed to be back here pronto if someone attacked that proved to be really strong.

Naruto strapped into his seat along with Furry Buddy, Fuzzybeard, Slim, and Frosty. The Blackbird came out of the basketball court below the school and made haste to their destination. Naruto was about to catch a few z's but Scott, instead turned to him and gave him the gist of what was going on. "I know that you probably need some rest, but I need you at your best for this."

"Um, sure, I mean taking Green Thing on was a little tiring." Naruto replied, though Logan rebutted what he said earlier. "Really? Huh, I thought you said it was nothin'." He smirked a bit at getting a small tock mark to appear on the ninja's forehead. "Yeah, well...I mean...whatever, so what's the while situation Slim?"

Scott chuckled a bit internally at Naruto already calling him by his nickname, but he went straight to business. "Alright, we're heading to rendezvous with another X-Team that recently went through two straight missions with but a breath in between, and now one of their members isn't doing so well, and we're heading in to see what we can do for her. You're one of the people that I think maybe able to help her if need be."

"What exactly happened?"

"The first mission was actually a hunt to find out who exactly was experimenting on mutants and people that have had interactions with us, and the second one started when a massive technological hivemind parasite came to devour the minds of everything on the planet, luckily they were able to save everyone in the region and effectively destroy the machine, but Rogue was in a bad state after the hunt and now it looks like things are getting worse for her, physically and mentally. We're heading over where they are now to assess and help." He hoped that Naruto was able to grasp some of what he was saying, judging from the thinking look on his face.

Naruto listened to what he was saying, though he really didn't know what the hell a hivemind was, he'd ask what it was later, but all he knew was that some comrades were hurt, exhausted and needed some relief. "So basically we're just there for relief."

"Basically. But there's another reason I wanted you here." Naruto perked up on the particular reason why he was brought. "There are two specific people on the team that I'd like you to keep a close eye on with you negativity senses if you can, and there's a third that I'm certain that you can help with one of your techniques. The first two in particular have had some bad history and this is their 'second chance' per say, and while Rogue may give them the benefit of the doubt, I'm not so much."

Naruto listened in on who exactly these people were considering Cyclops wasn't too big a fan of them, though he did catch Wolverine a little on edge a bit after mentioning the two. "So who are they?"

"Raven Darkhölme, and Regan Wyngard, you'll know who they are pretty soon. Though they go by Mystique and Lady Mastermind, both of whom are 'former' terrorists. Mystique's able to shape shift into anyone no matter what age, gender, or body type, like you can. She nearly plunged all of mutant kind into a holocaust a few years ago. I'm fairly certain Rachel told you about where she came from."

Now Naruto knew who had caused her future to occur, he'd keep a close eye on this Mystique woman and make damn sure she wouldn't do anything that would harm anyone. Granted being able to look like anyone you wanted was common back home, but you'd get caught pretty quick by a decent eye. Here though...you'd have to be very skilled at differing between her and whoever she was impersonating, and clearly she's impersonated some pretty important people to get labeled a terrorist.

Scott noticed the concerned look on his face and knew that he got the gist of who exactly he would be dealing with, so he moved on to the other person. "Lady Mastermind is a master illusionist, though she induces them through telepathy like her father and sister, both of whom are master illusionists. Though they aren't quite on any of the Uchiha's level, but she's close. You however can see through whatever illusions she uses on the rest of us and break them, is anything goes bad, which I have a feeling something will."

Ok, so dealing with someone who was just below an Uchiha's level of Genjutsu wasn't that difficult, unless she has someone to back her up, since Slim didn't say anything about her having any actual fighting skill, so there was as that.

"The last person is Karima Sharpandar, though she's been a longtime friend of the X-Men, and someone you can trust, her alias is Omega Sentinel." Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, a Sentinel that was friendly to the X-Men? That was weird, though granted he saw the pro-mutant Sentinel that the Forge guy made, and the ones at the mansion but they were piloted by organic humans that were pro-mutant, or at least most of them were, so what made this one so different?

Though Scott caught the confused eyebrow and explained a bit. "Right, sorry. You probably haven't gotten to that part in class yet. About 2 and half years ago, a special Sentinel calling itself Bastion had kidnapped over three dozen people and had forcibly made them into Prime Sentinels. They were turned into machines, but they still had organic components and they were cyborgs unlike Bastion who was more machine like Sasori. Bastion had them all programed to eliminate any mutant if they encountered any and they were forced to kill many mutants, including their own family members. We were able to shut down Bastion' operations before any real damage could be done, and we helped get rid of whatever old programming of his out of Karima, so she's free from any 'mutant hunting' programs. You following me?"

Naruto gave a nod. A woman was kidnapped and forced to become a killing machine and she's been fighting against what she was made to do, almost like what Sasori did to the Third Kazekage, except she's still alive at the end of the day, and he wasn't. "So you want me to keep an eye on the first two, if shit hits the fan. And the third one...uhhhh..."

"I want you to use the Jigokudo to repair Karima like Pain did with his other bodies. She's in bad shape as far as we can guess, given that she hasn't had a whole lot of time to repair herself or run any diagnostics scans to sort out any problems. That, and we need to see if you can help Rogue out. She was captured and infected with a dangerous virus, which is where you come in, and Emma will help sort out and discard the billions of minds in her head that she absorbed from the alien machine." He hoped Naruto was able to grasp what he said, relief and medical attention, and keep an on the 'unsavory' people. "Got it. Help and watch."

Cyclops nodded in approval of Naruto being able to understand a bit of what was going on. He turned back around to the front of the jet, wondering how his son Cable was doing now that he was back at Providence.

* * *

-Providence Island; the Pacific, in the aftermath of Hecatomb; Cable-

* * *

Well, they did it, but at a small cost. Cable had built Providence as the ideal Democracy in the hopes that many nations would follow its example, and to make sure that it would stay that way for many years to come, as he had one last mission left in his life which was coming up soon, though now he needed to get everything back online for people to return and start rebuilding the island. So Cable needed to bring the central AI unit to start things up for the skeleton crew that would arrive to help him.

"Wake up, Professor I'm reinstating electrical conduits in what was Fountainhead Plaza. I need you to verify the connections." Pays well to still have some telekinetic power left in your body, and combining it with the technology in your diseased arm. Although he really wish that it wasn't so diseased with the techno-organic virus that was killing him and draining the last of his telekinetic energy.

"Affirmative, Nathan. Observation: Internal chronometer indicates extensive period off-line."

"You're only a partial copy of the original AI construct designated 'Professor'. I've woken you now because I don't have any other infrastructure to fall back on. The island...the ship, as it used t be...has been completely evacuated." Cable wished that he had his telepathy back so he would know what was coming next...

"Negative."

"Take my word for it, and update your files."

"Negative."

"Professor, there's no point in arguing about this. I'm all on my..."

"Providence Island. Location 120N 165W. Current population...two." Cable was getting the feeling that someone was eyeing him in the back of the head like a predator watching prey. Luckily the Professor only spoke to him through the comm-link built into his arm, and the other person didn't hear a thing, meaning he could get the jump on his ambusher. See how he liked to get ambushed, the little bastard. "Five degrees Widdershins, Nathan. On the far side of the square."

"Got it. Thanks, Professor." Cable took the rifle that he had kept on him at all times and reassembled it to start popping into ff round to whoever it was that came for him. He knew eventually someone was bound to come after him since no one had done it in a long time, not since Stryfe and Apocalypse. Cable turned to wherever the intruder was and aimed his rifle right at them, however they were obscured by the shadows leaving only their silhouette visible to him. "All right. I don't know who you are, and I don't much give a damn. Come out and show yourself, or I'll bring that building down on your head."

Cable ID'ed the intruder as a man due to his voice, and even more so after recognizing the accent. "Dat's a cold thing to say to a comrade in arms, Cable. Sounds like overkill, too. But you called it." Cable or instinctively knew who it was judging by the Cajun accent that the man used, but it sounded like he was back to his old self, and if so, why was he here? Then he saw that the man had a small Raggedy Anne doll in his arm, and soon it began to glow a vibrant pink. "So I'm happy to lend you a hand."

The man threw the doll at him and Cable immediately retreated to a see distance to get away from the blast that was about to go off. Unfortunately for Cable, he didn't pay close enough attention to where he was landing and he went down about ten feet below from where he was down into a plaza and he went face first to the concrete, though he took more punishment to the face before and he still looked all right. The man then walked slowly out towards the edge and jumped down to meet Cable face-to-face. Cable knew without a doubt who he was, but his appearance was back to his old self before Apocalypse had turned him into his Horseman Death; Remy LeBeau, AKA Gambit. "Pick a card, my friend. For old times' sake."

Cable knew that Gambit had sided with Apocalypse as a double agent for the X-Men, but En Sabah Nur saw through what he was doing and turned into his new Horseman of Death, and after their final fight with the ancient mutant who was betrayed by his own servants and allies, Gambit had left in shame seeking isolation due to his new appearance and deadly powers, but now he was back to normal, and the only person capable of that was the one who had been closest to Apocalypse...though he had a feeling _that_ crazed man had an ulterior motive for removing the Death Seed's taint from the Cajun...

* * *

-New Orleans, The Tremé-

* * *

Two people, a man and a woman walked incognito to a shop that wasn't far from downtown, and they knew that this one was a future version of a member of their, shame he had to go...they opened the shop's door as the bell went off to signify a customer had entered. The owner was tinkering with an old antique clock and he had a twelve gauge shotgun all loaded up on the counter.

Apparently he knew that someone was coming for him today, and was all ready to at least take someone with him. "Well now. Look what the cat dragged in." He had a Cajun accent almost like Gambit's, albeit older and gruff that went by the alias The Witness. He was a future version of the mutant man that had come from a future that Bishop hailed from and he knew at least 80 years' worth of future events, one of the things why he was prepared for a lot of situations since he had lived for so long.

The two people approached the counter and saw that he hadn't made a move for the gun, much to their own ironic disbelief. "A shotgun, old man? Seriously? Against us?" The man had asked almost hypothetically.

The Witness stopped fiddling with the clock and sat it back on the counter, eyeing the two people who looked familiar, though he thought they should be dead. "You see me reaching for it? Believe me, Sonny, I've seen how this plays out."

"Then I imagine this will come as no surprise." The woman said as she stepped in front of the man and held her arm out to the old man.

Except this time he didn't, he knew that two people would come for him one day to kill him, but what he didn't know was that these people weren't your average thugs. It was only then that he felt dizzy all of a sudden and his vision began to distort and he suddenly collapsed down to the floor. Now he saw who the people were. Scalphunter and Vertigo, people who should've died back when New York was caught up in the Inferno of the Limbo dimension, and now he knew who it was that sent them. Scalphunter took the shotgun off the counter and gave it a once over. It wasn't bad at all, he kept the thing in good shape and repair, though he could easily enhance it being a technomorph. He pumped the gun to make sure it was loaded, and pointed it straight at the Witness' face on the ground. "You want to know something? It's like we've never been away." And he pulled the trigger...

* * *

-Cable and Gambit-

* * *

Gambit unfolded a set of cards that began to glow that deadly pink of his. "Isn't there more joy in Heaven for a sinner dat repent, Cable? Well, here I am. An' you can see I dropped dat whole new look."

Cable still had his gun raised at Gambit's head ready to pull the trigger. "Yeah, I see that. How did you manage that exactly?"

"Wit' a little help from my _friends_." The way he put it told Cable that he only associated with these _friends,_ of his due to having no choice in the matter. "Cable, I didn't come here to fight you. We make this quick and easy, 'cause easy is my watchword. I just want to throw a question at that computer of yours."

Cable let his gun down just a tad since he could tell Gambit really wasn't looking for a fight, nor was he doing this for his own benefit. He was being forced, and wanted to get out of the situation as soon as possible with as little bloodshed as possible. "About what?"

"About de _time._ We're thinkin' its one minute before dawn." A catch phrase that Cable knew, and only _he_ knew. Now he was on edge, this was going to complicate what he thought would be his last mission. The most important mission he would ever undertake. "What? What did you just say?" Now he had his gun all primed and ready to take the Cajun down in a split second. Though Gambit saw that Cable was about to put him down like a dog, he acted quickly to get to his main objective. "Never mind, Homme. I'll show you a card trick instead."

Gambit threw the charged cards at Cable, and he stopped them with his telekinesis, though in about two seconds he really wished he still had even a shred of his telepathy left in him. "Not going to happen, Gambit."

Gambit smirked a bit at what he thought was Cable thinking he had the edge, but he really didn't. "Well, I said it was a trick, Cable. You just keep watchin' my hands."

"GUUUH!" All of a sudden Cable was hit with a massive blast of fire from the sky, by someone who he also thought was once an ally of the X-Men, Sunfire. He too had served Apocalypse, _willingly _unlike Gambit. Sunfire had lost his legs in a fight against Lady Deathsrike, couple that with the loss of his powers he fell into a deep depression similar to another former Horseman of Apocalypse that was also an X-Man. In the aftermath of Nur's defeat, he fled with Gambit and wasn't seen again, until now.

Sunfire flew around Cable to keep out of his telekinetic range, otherwise he was a dead man, and he knew it. You couldn't win in a fist-to-fist fight against the man. "You're supposed to be the great strategist, Summers. But I suppose we all become complacent on our home ground. Start to miss the obvious." Cable was trying to stay up and off the ground in order to get a good foothold; don't let the enemy keep you off balance. One of the things he was taught by Slym and Redd.

Though he had trouble, given that Sunfire was trying to pick his head off, so he didn't notice that Gambit had turned away from him..."And to forget the fine detail." and the fact that his cards were still in fact, fully charged..."Three...two...one." The cards went off like C4, luckliy Cable kept the majority of the blast from doing any real damage, just rather he got some blood coming from his nose and mouth, along with a few cuts and burns...oh, and the cracked ribs from the shockwave, forgot about that. But when adrenaline starts to pump into your body, you tend to ignore whatever pain is present in your body.

Cable ran back to his last vestige on the island and get rid of any info on what they meant. Sunfire was about to give chase, until Gambit put a hand on his shoulder to halt his pursuit. "Let de man run, Sunfire. Only hand we got to win is de last one." They still needed what he knew on the future.

* * *

-Naruto-

* * *

The finally arrived at Mystique's old house and sat down out in the front lawn, though they really should've parked out back behind the trees instead of on the lawn. Naruto went with Slim, Frosty, Fuzzybeard and Furry Buddy to meet up with the other X-Men team inside the house. He immediately was set on edge as he stepped off the Blackbird, and knew that something was gonna go down, soon as they let their guard down and were relaxed.

Naruto 'accidentally' dropped a Flying Raijin Kunai outside just in case they needed to make a hasty escape if they got overwhelmed, or rather if the others did while he gave them cover from whoever came to kill them. He decided to reach out and sense out the people inside the house, and sensed six people inside the place, two of which were upstairs in another room, two others were down in the basement and two were on the main floor.

He could see that one of the ones down in the basement had a similar energy reading to what the Sentinels, so he guessed that that one was Karima, the others were mutants, though he couldn't really tell who was who since he didn't meet them. But he still needed to keep an eye on Mastermind and Mystique. So he kept to himself since odds are the other team didn't know what he could do, and the less the better given that both women were quite possibly an enemy. The arrived and Naruto was able to recognize Cannonball back from the Institute when he was telling his story after bringing Laurie back from the dead. Then there was a woman dressed heavily in a green outfit with white outlining and had a streak of white hair on the front top of her head, Emma telepathically told Naruto that this was Rogue, the team leader and the one in need of medical attention and to not touch her what so ever, otherwise he would die. Then two more people appeared in the room with them; a man covered in ice that Naruto recognized as Bobby Drake from when he met Old Man X, and one of his first student. He could already tell he was a pretty laid back guy from the way he talked.

"Hey, Scott." Bobby went up to give his old friend a hug for coming to help them, after Rogue sort of giving them a bit of a cold shoulder when they left the Institute to operate out on their own.

"Hey, Bobby. Sorry we got here a little late, we needed a few things before coming here."

"It's alright." Bobby glanced a bit over to see a kid with white hair, strange rippled patterned eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks. "Is he why you guys were a little late?" He never saw this kid before and he didn't think Scott would be one to bring kids into the mix of major things like this. So why did he bring him?

Scott, gave a nod in yes, but he didn't say anything else, and then turned his attention to Emma diving into Rogue's mind to find out how much damage her mind has taken, while Naruto saw that a new person had entered the room, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up almost instinctively after seeing her.

Mystique. She wore a white outfit with a belt that had multiple skulls on it and a skull that parted her hair a bit like some fashion accessory. She had a few pistols strapped to her hips and her skin was abnormally blue and her hair was brighter than his mom's. This was the woman that was responsible for almost damning the mutant race to extinction...he analyzed her for a bit and knew that she was a seasoned assassin, she knew how to handle herself, and that she'd stab whoever in the back to save her own ass.

He stopped analyzing her as he saw that now she glanced at him for a bit.

She didn't know who this kid was, since she had never seen him before and she knew that Summers wasn't one to field kids nowadays. She stopped trying to get a reading on this kid, since she caught him trying to read her as well...this kid wasn't a brat, that much she got from the momentary glance she had after seeing his ripple patterned eyes, they disturbed her a bit, but she wouldn't show it. He was skilled, she just didn't know how much though...hopefully he wouldn't be a pain in the ass. She turned her attention to Emma and the sleeping form of Rogue, her adopted daughter.

Rogue laid down on a bed in the room with Emma trying to get inside her head, while Beast was trying to find a way to fight the virus that was in her body. Cyclops, Wolverine and Mystique stood over the women, while Naruto decided to start writing in a book he recently got back at the school. He wasn't sure why, but a few days ago he decided to start writing his story, the true story of his life in the hopes that perhaps some people in this world could learn from it. Then as he was just writing down about the time he kicked Kiba's ass back in Chunin Exams, he started hearing some pretty somewhat bad news about Rogue.

Emma had finally gotten inside Rogue's head and so far...it wasn't good, if anything her condition was worsening. "Scott? It could be worse than we thought."

"Give me specifics." Scott asked. Mystique had a worried face on already, and Naruto caught that. Maybe she did have some concern over Rogue, but the true question, was if her concern was truly genuine...either way, Naruto saw that she was putting on a show. She was hiding something, though he kept an unnoticeable eye on her as the senior X-Men continued talking.

"The alien minds haven't been integrated at all. They're still in here. Separate. Complete. Mostly terrified." Emma said as she gave her professional psychic diagnosis on Rogue's mind status, while Hank gave his biological diagnosis and status on the virus. "Scott, I've isolated the viral agent that sent Rogue's Absorption power out of control. Strain 88, as Pandemic called it. But it's _spectacularly_ robust." Something Hank wouldn't say very often. And that truly was saying something. "So far I can't find a drug or phage that will touch it."

Scott didn't like that. It just looked like Rogue's chances of being back to normal were slipping by the second with Emma and Hank giving their opinions on her well-being. He didn't trust Mystique fully with anything, at all really, her track record suggested otherwise, so asking Naruto to kill the virus in front of her was something he was hoping to avoid. "Keep trying."

Hank looked up from the microscope he had the virus under. "Obviously. But if there's no medical solution, our only option may be brute force. Skin contact with Logan, or..." Hank slightly nudged his shoulder towards Naruto's direction.

Though as Hank nudged towards him, he felt some negative intent upstairs making its way back down stairs. Something was off...he put his book and pen down back inside his trench coat and walked over towards the others, while Fuzzybeard got ready for what needed to be done if necessary. "Whenever you're ready, bub."

"Those are last resorts. We know Rogue would absorb Wolverine's healing factor, but we don't know he'd survive. And we have no idea what kind of havoc would go on if Naruto used his own healing power on her, or what the virus would do to him. We take those routes when we've exhausted all other avenues."

Emma pulled back with some sweat on her forehead showing the strain of just how difficult it was to try and find Rogue's consciousness through the massive hivemind collective. Even for someone as experienced and talented as she was, she had some trouble. Scott went to help Emma after she had a little bit of trouble getting up off her knees as she was diving into Rogue's mind. "Emma, are you alright?"

"No. This is like sifting a desert for a single grain of sand. Except that sand doesn't scream." Emma managed get up for a bit, but she placed her hands on her knees, needing to catch her breath. "Rogue's consciousness...as far as I can tell...is intact. But it's been backed into a corner by these countless other minds. Her sense of her own identity is breaking down under the strain."

Mystique went wide eyed with an angry expression on her face, and stormed up behind Emma as she was still just as a calm as ever. "You mean she's going insane?"

"She could easily drift I to psychosis, yes. And then catatonia or amnesiac fugue."

"Then do something. Don't just stand there and talk about it." She kept her voice level so not make things heated.

Naruto was just watching the woman _rambling_ off to Frosty. _'She could do better at acting, though I don't know why everyone else is being stupid about. How come they can't see she's just acting?'_

_**'They probably do. They may just be waiting for the right moment to actually take her down if the other two above, whom are both heading downstairs towards us, actually try something. Oooorrrr...they may be stupid enough to actually fall for her little act.'**_ Kurama said inside the mindscape. He also began to get a feeling that this was just a setup for a much bigger attack.

Emma got up and looked towards Scott who spoke a bit low to her. "Can you do anything?"

"I can try to build some psychic floodwalls. But it won't be easy. To extend the metaphor, there's no dry ground left to build on."

"Can you do it here and now?"

Emma shook her head. "No. I'll need to prepare myself. Get my tools ready in advance."

"Then I'm calling a break. Let us know when you're ready, Emma. In the meantime, I guess we'll let Rogue sleep. It's probably the best we can do for her." As Scott was talking, Naruto saw that two more women walked into the room...he guessed more than likely the two sources of the negative intent from downstairs. Though he really tried to hold his self-control down under, and was doing everything he could to stop the blood from dripping down his nose, after seeing the blonde due to her...appearance per say, in fact he didn't think Emma wore something so revealing.

Pretty much cut down the whole middle and up to about half way from her breast up, in a 'T' formation, though still retaining her dignity, was a one piece uniform with a belt lined with several pockets for equipment, and a collar that protected her neck. She had hair as long and as blonde as Emma's and she gave a slight sway in her hips, alluring men to her, Naruto assumed that she was Lady Mastermind. _'Ok, note to self. Don't get caught up with women that look, really hot and have a really bad rep.'_

_**'I pray to whatever deity there is out there, that you don't get any casual sex from someone like her. I smell trouble from just one look at that bitch.'**_

Naruto glanced at the other woman and saw that she was outfitted with some uniform that looked like she was grafted to it, primarily white with black and grey lining on her upper body, while she had some red on her legs. There were also a few stumpy looking things that were on her arms that looked like extensions that Pain would use with his Shurado body to grow arms or use weapons and rockets. This had to have been Karima, the Omega Sentinel, though if she was a longtime friend of the X-Men, why would she be emanating negative intent...unless...

_**'...there's someone else at the driver's wheel. Her intent is conflicted. One is desperately trying to get out, while the other is dominating. You could use the Ningendo to extract the other one in her.'**_

_'I better warn the others.'_

_**'The slut is trying to get in your head. She's probably already got one over on the others, we should probably play along so we don't blow anything. She's probably trying to mask their allies approach right now and have the blue one and the cyborg attack us by pretending to be on our side.'**_

Naruto thought out loud to Emma and she drew the others in to give them the details of what was and what would go down most likely. So they decided to play dumb for the time being, and let Lady Mastermind do her thing with them except Naruto. He was their ace if things went south.

Regan had been trying to dig deep into the roots of everyone's minds here to make things more effective when the time came, though this kid was making things a bit irritating. Every time she tried to get into his head, something ended up shoving her back out, and she was losing her patience by the second. So she decided to take the direct approach with him about seeing what the hell was up with him. "Hey, kid."

Naruto turned around to face her trying to fight his hormones as badly as he could. "Hmm?"

"Why are you here?"

"Uh, 'cause I was asked to."

Regan didn't like the answer she got from him, so she tried a different approach. "Aww~...you sure you can't tell little old me~?" She put on a sultry smile to get him aroused, worked on a lot of guys. Though she was kinda disturbed a bit by his eyes, since they obviously didn't look even remotely natural.

Now his blood was going down go his nether regions. Though, _'Two can play this game.'_ He put on a carefree face like he usually would. "Y-yeah, I can't really say honestly, so anyways I really should get back to writing the sequel to my novel series." He pulled out a book with 'Icha Icha Violence' on the cover, getting a fan girl squeal from Regan.

"Wait, are you really the guy that write the Icha Icha franchise?!" Regan immediately pulled out a book with the title 'Icha Icha Paradise' on the cover, she had the book in her when they literally had nothing to do. Though as soon as she read it seeing how it didn't seem like a bad read online, she wanted to know how good this guy was in bed, seriously...she had to know if either this shit came naturally, or if he liked to experiment. Her face was blushing with that fan girl expression on her face. "Please sign it!" She pulled a pen out of her pocket, and handed the book and pen right to Naruto who was a little shocked by the fact that he just came across a major fan.

_'Somewhere that old perverted bastard is laughing his ass off.'_

_**'If it makes you feel any better, so am I.'**_

Naruto took the book and pen and gave his signature right in the cover and Regan swiped it right out of his hands. She hugged it like a kid at Christmas with their favorite toy, though she let up and held it up a bit to ask him a little something. "Sooo...there by any chance you wanna...'show' me how you get your inspiration for your stuff?" She almost was in his personal space gaining a noticeable blush from the white haired.

_'Well this sure as hell backfired.'_ Naruto really needed to get out of this situation. "Uh-Uhm...You know we really should get with the others, you know." He had some major blood flow down under, and he adjusted his pants accordingly to try and hide it from her, though she glanced down momentarily and saw that he had a hard on. Worked like a charm, though she was a woman that used her assets. "Aww~...what's the rush, they won't know. Just a quickie, who cares." She got real close to his face and he started to back up to the wall, so she put her hands right on the wall leaning into Naruto's face.

"Uh, uhm, uhm...did I mention I'm only 17?" He had a nervous smile trying to get out of the situation. Luckily, it had the intended effect. Regan's face dropped down into one of confusion, sadness, and depression. She dropped down into a fetal position after letting Naruto out of her little seductive position. He sweat dropped at the girls antics, and thought that she really needed a boyfriend or something.

"Awwwww maaaaannn...so wanted to get laid with you dude. This book is like a freaking gold mine of ideas and positions, would've been so much fun." Naruto coulda swore that she soon had some sort of necrotic aura hanging over her head, but he was probably imagining it.

"Well, I mean. I'm not really the kinda guy that's into you know, casual sex and all. I mean I just write what comes to mind." He chuckled a bit to try and ease up the tension on the fan girl...even if she was an enemy. She got up and her appearance went back to normal, or what Naruto could tell was probably normal for her. She walked right through the doorway to the others in the living room where the kitchen was also located, while tracing her finger along his cheek. "Well, maybe that'll change in a year." She smirked at the red face he made after going to the others. _'Huh, it almost makes me feel bad for what we gotta do, well almost for them. I kinda hope he actually gets out alive, I really want to read Icha Icha Violence.'_

Naruto was completely caught off guard by what just happened. _'Hey, is it just me? Or are women more perverted here than back home?'_

_**'No, you're right. They are more perverted than the women back home. Which seems really weird, even to me.'**_

* * *

-Cable; Providence Island-

* * *

Cable had been running through multiple buildings to try and shake his pursuers. He needed to get to his lab with his future library, and he needed to make sure it didn't get into enemy hands, the primary control room for everything in Providence that he kept a secret from everyone, even to his close friends, future knowledge in the wrong hands would have disastrous results.

He placed his hand on the pad go open the room up to him and he stepped inside, still trying ease up the pain on his fractured ribs from the fight with Gambit and Sunfire. "Seal and lock, Professor. And then run a search."

"Nathan. You're hurt." The AI was genuine in its concern for its creator.

"It'll..." He paused a bit trying to slow his breathing down a bit to make sure the pain subside. "...keep. Suspend all other assigned tasks and...chase this down for me." He went over to the recorder built into the table that he used to meet with whoever he deemed important enough to share this from with for whatever reason. "A phrase. Four words. 'One minute before dawn'."

Then a massive hole in the wall was made by Sunfire, with Gambit tailing right behind him. "Thank you, Cable. You've been a very hospitable host. It would have taken us longer to find this place unaided."

Cable turned back to face Sunfire and Gambit, hoping he could talk some sense into them, they didn't know what they were getting into. "Listen to me. You don't understand what you're doing. What you're going to destroy."

Sunfire lifted his palm right to blast Cable to bits, "On that last score, at least, I can reassure you. You die, because that door needs to be closed. But all the knowledge you've amassed will serve a greater purpose."

Cable tool one last defiant look and shot it straight it at the duo, and uttered out loud..."Professor. Requiem."

Then a very loud powering up sound started to cry across the whole block on the island, they realized then that Cable had activated the self-destruct sequence. "Oh, shit." Sunfire and Gambit both said in unison, so they hauled ass as fast as they could and they were barely able to get away in time to avoid the incinerating blast by of island going off. Sunfire of course took other than some disorientation, while Gambit's trench jacket was burned up and, forcing the Cajun to tear it off before he started to burn from the flames. Sunfire flew down to pick Gambit out of the water and rendezvous with the others.

_'Da boss, ain't gonna like dis...not dat I like dis much either.'_ Gambit thought to himself, while mourning his now deceased former comrade, Cable.

* * *

-Naruto and the Senior X-Men-

* * *

Naruto had done his best to try and stay away from Regan after that whole thing. He walked in to see that the others were eating a few snacks out of the cupboards and shootin' the shit. He saw that 'Karima' was tinkering with something on her arm, probably some check up on her body to see what weapons she had on her to use. Naruto figured he could summon the chameleon to restrain her while he ripped her out of Karima's body, though she'd be vulnerable when it ended.

Good thing he made a Shadow Clone when he went to go use the bathroom real quick to kill his blood flow for a bit. The NaruClone summoned the chameleon and hid inside it, as the creature camouflaged, with everyone inside completely oblivious to NaruClone's actions outside.

He noticed that Mystique wasn't here, and not only that, he sensed up to eight new presences in the house with her. Though he saw that no one else noticed this at all, most likely due to Regan keeping them in some illusion of not seeing or sensing their enemies, so odds are they were blocking Frosty from reading their minds, so that left Omega Sentinel blocking her mind from seeing them.

He shaken from his thoughts as he saw that 'Karima' was looking back and forth between him and her arm, probably some sensor since Regan couldn't get anything out of him as he saw her just reading Icha Icha, and her face was blushing a bit while she was holding back a few laughs.

Regan got a look from 'Karima' thinking she was being deplorable and a pervert. Though Regan ignored her and kept on reading...somehow someway, she'd get this guy in bed with her. "You're disgusting."

"Oh, come on. Just read a few pages. It's golden."

'Karima' turned a small shade of red and her arms started to fidget a bit. "No thank you, I'm quite alright. I don't 'experience' things like that anymore." She still needed to keep up her appearance of who she was

"Damn, that's a shame."

Logan popped a bear open and took a swig. "You pay your money. You make your choice."

Cannonball and Wolverine had been discussing Rogue's recent actions concerning how she had been acting lately since she took her team off on her own. "Never really thought of it like that. And t'be honest, ah don't think Rogue did either. She came to the X-Men 'cause she had to. She was desperate."

"What you do when you're desperate is what defines who you are." Logan said to Sam.

"In my experience, it's what we do over the pretty much our whole lives is what defines us, and the people that we have to call friends is what help defines us." Naruto deciding to join in the conversation.

Bobby agreed with Naruto about what defines a person. "Myeah, I definitely agwee wit you dude." He spoke with his mouth full of chips and other snacks.

Scott and Emma were talking with one another on the school curriculum for the students next year since it was coming to an end soon, though Mystique came through the doorway with an 'alarmed' expression on her face. "Cyclops, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think we've got trouble."

Naruto new that is was of course, _'It's showtime, hehehe, it's gonna be sweet crashing their plans."_

_**'Oh, this I wanna see.'**_

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood ready to move. "Go ahead, Mystique." Cyclops said.

"Some of my alarm sensors have just been tripped. Multiple movement signatures, a hundred yards from the house. But no clear visuals. Whoever it is, if they're cloaked, I'm assuming they're probably hostile."

_'No shit, lady.'_/_**'No shit, lady.'**_

"Emma?" Cyclops asked his girlfriend.

"Nothing outside."

"I'm telling you..." Mystique tried to tell them, even though it was flat out lie.

"Too much nothing. No frogs. No birds. No insects. That means a psi-shield."

Cyclops turned his vision to everyone. "Beast, Wolverine. Secure the Blackbird. Iceman, your team had better establish a perimeter. Ronin, you stick with Emma while she tries to break through the null zone source, and you take it out."

"On it, Scott." Iceman replied.

"No prob, Slim." Naruto said, seeing a ghost of a smile on Cyclops' face.

Soon everyone but Emma, Naruto and Karima remained in the kitchen as everyone else was on the other side of the house out of hearing most hearing range from the others, but it was being blocked by a certain someone. Emma tried to probe deeper into the source, but was straining a bit, with 'Karima' showing some concern for her, while Naruto was standing off to the Sentinel's side, ready for when it came. "Anything wrong, Emma?"

"Yes, actually, that null zone. Turns out it, it's a lot closer than I thought. It's almost as if it were right in front of me." Emma spoke to Omega Sentinel with narrowed eyes right at her, and she knew that she had been had. Omega Sentinel brought both her hands up to stun the shit out of the two, but as she let loose the bolts to paralyze them, Emma had transformed into her Diamond Form, while Naruto had skin that looked black like her own hair.

"Earth Style: Iron Skin. Nice try, I'll give ya credit for that though." Next Emma took a swing at the cyborg right in the face, shattering her a bit and throwing her off balance. Now she found that she couldn't move at all, not even her head after that punch.

Soon whatever was binding her revealed itself to be some sort of snake with a elongated tongue that completely held her in place, coming out of a nearby window.

Naruto walked right in front of her to start getting answers out of her. "So, who's really driving the body? I know it can't really be Karima considering she's been a longtime friend of the X-Men, even though I've never really met her."

"Name's Malice, and now I can go digital babes. Though your blonde bombshell friend there can tell you more about me since I don't feel like talking too much."

Emma stepped in to fill Naruto in about Malice and her past. "She's a psychic entity, or rather a parasite that needs a host body for her to possess. A few years ago she possessed Polaris and she was forced to work for Mr Sinister."

Naruto remembered that name for sure after Jean told him. He turned ever so slightly to see Emma, though she saw a bit of animosity in his eyes, no telepathy needed. She saw that Naruto knew what Sinister had done in the past, and it angered him quite a bit. Especially going off by his next few words. "The sick bastard the cloned Jean, and then tried to kill everyone?"

Emma nodded in response. She'd know eventually how he learned about that since they hadn't gotten to that point in classes yet, she had forbade him from using the Shadow Clones in place of himself, she would've preferred if he actually showed up and studied for what they did.

Malice clearly didn't like being called a parasite, going off of the death stare she was giving Emma. "Fuck you, Cow Tits."

"Hmph, at least I have some." Emma smiled coyly at Malice with some pride at the ammo her enemy just gave her.

"Grrrr..." Malice struggled to get out of the tongue that was keeping a vice grip on her, and after taking that headshot from Emma, she couldn't activate any of the weapons automatically from her head, she'd have to do it manually with her arms, which were binded at the moment.

Naruto then placed his hand over her open stomach area to start things up. "Well, since you're not gonna talk at all, I'll rip you out of our friend and that'll be the end of you."

"Hah! Good luck brat. I'm dug in deep into this Sentinel's body, even with her strugglin' to get out, she ain't going nowhere, and neither am I. You know how much it sucks not to have a body?"

"I don't particularly care at all about how you feel right now, so, bye-bye. Ningendo." Naruto then gripped Karima's stomach and pulled out a ray of something. "Now pay attention, I'm ripping out your soul, with Karima's so don't make a sudden movement, otherwise you may now be who you are if a piece of it get shredded off." Naruto had a laid back expression on his face, while Malice was wide eyed with fear. She hadn't felt fear in many years, not since the Inferno of Manhattan.

She saw that her soul along with Karima's were side by side one another, and they each had a different color, though none of them could really tell with a simple look. One was blue, while the other was purple, but for Naruto he could tell who was who, and now came step two, since the kitchen was large enough for it to fit in here. "Jigokudo."

A large head with the same eyes came out of the ground with a menacing appearance. "Malice, meet the King of Hell, King of Hell...Malice. Now you guys know each other, and now you're food for him." The King of Hell's mouth opened up with his tongue and teeth showing ready to devour her. Malice was struggling with every fiber of her being and hyperventilating to get out of the tongue and ways from this freak of nature kid, no way in hell he was a Mutant! He couldn't be, he had to many fucking powers to be one, no one had this many at once, even Sinister had to amalgamate his powers into his body, but the kid didn't even look smart at all, if anything he was bit of a perverted dumbass, going off of what she saw in the book Regan showed her.

"Nononono...no, no, please!" But her cries fell on deaf ears, as Naruto grabbed the red part of the soul and ripped it apart from the purple and Karima's body fell unconscious for a bit, before she began to stir a bit.

Emma saw that Naruto was able to rip out Malice like virtually nothing, though it was expected of someone with the Rinnegan.

"Well, that was fast." Emma said.

"Yeah, kinda thought she had something up her sleeve, but guess she didn't."

"You probably should repair Karima before she regains consciousness, we'll need her help in a bit."

"Oh, right." Naruto had the Chameleon dispell and dropping Karima down on the floor so the Jigokudo head could bring her in its mouth and start chomping away to repair her to full functionality. Soon it spat her back up and she was panting from shock and confusion.

"Wha-wha just happened? I thought I was, what...?" She was confused as to how the hell Emma and this boy had appears right in front of her. The last thing she rembered before was she was doing a systems update, just before she got an infection from her Laptop.

Naruto kneeled down and place a hand on her shoulder to try and bring her up to speed and back to normal. "Hey, it's all right. You got possessed and I had to rip what's-her-face out of you, and I healed you up." He didn't want to say how considering she would just go into shock and pass out after knowing that she just got chewed up by a giant demonic head. "Right now the rest of the X-Men are gonna be fighting soon, and we need you Karima."

Karima looked at the boy and saw that he wasn't lying to her, he had that genuine look that someone had when they spoke to you. "Thank you, for ripping whoever it was out of me. Odds are she easily could've killed everyone here with my body. I'm just glad you got her out in time." Naruto stood up and offered a hand to help Karima up on her feet. "So, who're we up against...?"

A few minutes later, the trio rejoined the others in the living room where Regan was sitting down in a chair without a care in the world, while Karima sat down next to her. Regan looked at Karima with a look and and she returned it in kind, keeping up her appearance that she was still Malice. Though Regan was a little confused since Frost was still up and walking, though she was hoping the kid was still alive. Didn't wanna ruin any chance of his manhood going up in flames. She'd hate to not see it.

Everyone started to look around the room, oblivious to what was in front of them, though Naruto already saw the eight others in the room. All primed and ready to go, he didn't make eye contact but rather decided to stay just as oblivious as the others.

Beast got a whiff of the air, and so did Wolverine. "Logan, is it just me, or..."

"No. They ain't a hundred yards away. Nothing like. Got their scent disguised with stealth suits, but they're right in the house." Logan did not like this at all. He turned to Bobby and gave the order. "Drake, ice up. Now."

Though as he did, he noticed that parts were barely forming into ice, or just not forming at all. "I-I'm trying. Something's wrong!"

Cannonball knew that somethin' was up with this before they started to look for the enemy. "Ah don't get it. Why can't we see them?"

Naruto decided to go ahead and play smartass with everyone. He walked right over to Regan and did the same thing she did to him and placed his hands right on both sides of her head. He leaned in with a smile, not a nice and kind one, but one of a predator, ready to strike his prey. She started to sweat a bit, she knew they had been had. "Oh, yeah it's 'cause of her and all. Though her illusions really suck unlike an Uchiha's."

Naruto kicked the chair with Regan still in it straight forward where he saw the others that Mastermind was hiding from everyone and then everyone saw who their enemies were. The Marauders, consisting of Vertigo, Scrambler, Blockbuster, Riptide, Arclight, Scalphunter, Harpoon, and Prism, along with the newly added Lady Mastermind.

"So, nice try though, trying to get one up on us." Naruto unsealed the Gunbai on his right wrist and went into Toad Sage Mode immediately, while a few of the enemy were getting back up after having Lady Mastermind shoved right in them with quite a bit of force behind her.

Mystique saw that this kid was not playing around with them, so she took the liberty of sneaking off real quick for their main target while everyone else was distracted. _'This was not how things were supposed to go!' _Mystique thought to herself as she ran upstairs for her daughter, Rogue.

The Marauders got each other up and gave a look to Regan who simply shrugged in an unknowing manner. "How the hell did he see us when you were hiding us?" Scalphunter asked her, and then he turned to Karima, "And why the hell didn't you take that mind whore Frost down, Malice?"

Naruto spoke up for both answers, "Oh, well, ya see when she tried to pull one over on me, I saw right through what she was trying to do. Her illusions seriously suck ass, I mean, I can use an illusion that completely fucks with your whole sense of time and other crap, but I mean wow. You had everything banking on her? That's pretty stupid. And as for my friend here, and yours...well I ripped her out of Karima and let the King of Hell eat on her soul, so yeah there's that. And now we're gonna kick your asses." He smiled nonchantly as he spoke, with each of the Marauders getting wide eyed with each answer he gave. He knew what they were trying to do and said that it sucked completely, who the hell was he?

Scalphunter decided to rattle his cage up a bit. "You X-Men bringin' out the toddlers now? Hah! You guys must be really desperate!" Then he was shot back through the wall as he had no idea what the hell hit him. All they saw was the kid and the X-Men his standing their ground, although Omega Sentinel and Iceman were the only ones with wide eyes, just wondering what the hell he did.

"Ya gotta love Limbo Hengoku. A very convenient thing to have." Naruto said out loud. He swung the Gunbai out with a bit of Wind chakra and the Marauders were flat on their backs through the walls like Scalphunter.

Cyclops gave the order..."X-Men, take them down!"

"I thought you'd never ask Cyclops." Karima transformed her arms into plasma casters, and launched balls of plasma right at Scrambler and Vertigo to take them out due to being the tactical threats, while Emma diamonded up and swung right at Arclight. Wolverine and Cannonball dove straight through to tackle Riptide, while Beast &amp; Cyclops took on Prism and Vertigo as she got back up from Karima's first strike due to a little added protection from Sinister's skin armor, and Omega Sentinel started a shootout with Scalphunter who barely recovered from Naruto's Shadow attack.

Iceman was shot by one of Harpoons' spear though it only grazed him, but it left a massive stinging pain that had him clinging onto the wound with pain surging through his body, he still couldn't ice up properly. "How the hell did this happen...?" Then it hit him. Mystique. He saw that she wasn't around and he knew then that she was the cause of this ambush. He ran upstairs to try and get Rogue before Mystique made a getaway with her unconscious foster daughter.

That left Naruto with Blockbuster and Harpoon to deal with. "So it's two on one. Whatever will I do?" He said sarcastically. Blockbuster took it personally, thinking that the kid thought he was nothing, he wasn't gonna stand for that shit. "You little brat, you think you can take us like a real fucking man!"

Harpoon insulted the way his face looked after entering his Toad Sage Mode. "And seriously, you put magic mascara on in the middle of a fucking fight?! HAHAHAHHA!" Lady Mastermind was pretty much useless in a straight up fight like this so she kept her distance, if anything she'd be able to see what more he could. Thoooouugh...she could just keep quiet about it and possibly get a free early copy of Icha Icha Violence.

Naruto smirked at that, he already got under the skin of one, while the other wasn't taking him seriously enough. Good, he liked that, less trouble for him in this fight. "Well, since you guys think you're soooo tough...I'll give you guys the first shot, at me."

Harpoon arched his brow at what the kid was letting them do, while Block buster just blew off on him. "THAT'S IT YOU FUCKING BRAT!" Blockbuster charged right at Naruto and brought his clenched fists high above him to put him down in one blow, and so he did and he saw now that he only hit a splintered up log.

Now he was confused as hell as Harpoon was, though he felt someone tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see that kid had put the Gunbai on his back and he pulled a fist back and aimed right at his face, and now...he knew that he couldn't dodge for shit. "Peek-a-boo!" Naruto had shit eating grin on his face as he punched Harpoon into Blockbuster upsetting their balance.

Though if he couldn't get any luckier, he really did as Harpoon actually got punched through the air and he left a spear right in front of Naruto. He picked it right up and started to twirl it around in his hand like a pencil, surprising his enemies yet again as those spears where made of Adamantium. "Well, lookie what I got here."

Naruto noticed Lady Mastermind trying to slowly make her way out of the room by hugging the wall, so he decided to show off for a bit. Without even looking and not even putting enough power into it, he threw the spear right next to her face without even touching her hair. If she wasn't already scared of the kid already, then she was shitless as of now, she slowly craned her neck to see the spear just an inch away from her face, and her face was filled with fear, she was sweating, she had her eyes wide. She was afraid that she was gonna die here, though it looked like she was about to get a reprieve as Harpoon and Blockbuster got untangled from each other and got ready to try and two-time Naruto.

_'Hmmm...I wonder if this'll work on 'em.'_

"Alrighty guys, I'm gonna give ya'll a special glimpse of one of my Forbidden Jutsu's." Naruto still had that shit eating grin on his face, while the others were wondering how dangerous this Forbidden Jutsu' was, considering he looked like he wasn't even going all out against them. Naruto formed a handsign and disappeared in a puff of smoke...and in place...was a nude woman version of Naruto in a very seductive pose. "Sexy~ Jutsu~."

Both men them just blew hoses of blood out their noses and passed the hell out. Lady Mastermind on the other hand..."Oh, my God! No wonder you're a fucking genius!" Regan almost had stars in her eyes while practically praising her enemy, with her thumbs up high in the air.

_'Wow, she's like Pervy Sage...'_

Naruto soon dispelled with a displeased look on his face, though Regan wanted to just jump his bones right now, she did know better than to pull crap like that in the heat of a fight.

* * *

-Iceman-

* * *

Iceman ran upstairs to the room Rogue was in to try and take down Mystique and get some answers from her, though as he got to the room and saw that Rogue was still out cold, he felt a gun right at his temple, and heard Mystique's voice. "I'm sorry, Iceman. But Rogue's ours."

"Mystique!" Iceman grabbed her arm that had the gun to his forehead and tried to get an answer out of her. "You psychopath! Have you lost your mind?! What did you do to me?"

Mystique countered Iceman and kneed him in the gut knocking some of his saliva out of him. "Neural Inhibitor, Robert. In my lipstick and...elsewhere." **(AN: Yeah, they actually went there and had sex before the other X-Men arrived. Don't ask me why, seriously, I never understood it.)** Iceman threw a punch to her face, but she was faster and countered yet again with an elbow to the chin. "Your ice-form is just too powerful now. So I had to make sure you couldn't use it. To your credit though... I can't remember when I would have enjoyed this ambush, had that kid not have been here, things would've gone smoothly. But now..." Mystique punched Iceman straight in the nose to completely disorient him, sending Iceman down in the ground. "...now I have to improvise with a backup plan." Mystique reached into her pocket and pulled out some device and placed it to her temple and spoke through the device. "Marauders, pull back everyone, we're getting out of here, stop all engagements." Mystique grabbed Rogue and she pulled out some sort of remote, and they teleported out of the building.

Downstairs Arclight was taking a hell of a beating from Emma Frost, and once she heard Mystique's voice come through the comms they had, she immediately used her power to upset the whole balance of the house and practically brought the foundation down.

Though not before the other Marauders teleported out in a vanishing light like Mystique did upstairs, but Regan had one last thing to say to Naruto, before shit hit the fan. "Call me!" He just sweat dropped at her last words to him. _'Greeaaatt...now I've got an obsessed fan that's an enemy.'_

_**'Now you've got a Catwoman to your Batman. Just don't actually sleep with her...seriously, it will suck later on if you do. She'll come back for more like a stray cat would for food at your front door.'**_

_'Well thanks for advice that I kinda already had...'_

_**'You're quite welcome.'**_

Now the house fell down with everything right on top of them. "Shit...", was all Naruto had to say before they sank down into the ground.

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Shadowcat and Colossus were in her office, overlooking the security systems and trying to get in contact with everyone else, and yet..."Then nothing. Look, the whole board just rolled over and died." Kitty didn't like this...

Pete on the other hand, was the more optimistic between the two of them. "It could be nothing, Katya."

She didn't buy it. "It doesn't feel like nothing, Petey. I can't raise Scott's team either. I even pinged Cable on Providence, and guess what? More deafening silence."

Now Colossus saw what she was getting at, they were being taken off the grid, one-by-one. "Do you want me to take Blackbird two and rendezvous with Scott and the others?"

"You mean split up? Someday I've got to sit you down in front of some good horror horror movies, babe. And besides, they may just have their comma cutt off instead of just being dead. Naruto's with them, so no need to worry, and..." She pulled out the Flying Raijin Kunai Naruto gave to her, and twirled it around for a few spins. "...he left this with us, so he can teleport to use if we need him back here, ASAP. But let's go reset the alarm system, it'll make me feel a little bit better for now."

The two left her office and made their way to the Institute foyer, where the alarm system was located in the hallway next to it. Now...Kitty wanted to get back to the whole Horror movie thing with her boyfriend, "I think I'll start with The Shining. Or maybe Dark Water."

"If they are frightening, I will need to be comforted and reassured."

"Yeah, I'm seeing all kinds of possibilities here." Ah, the magic word: Possibilities. Something a certain student was well versed in seeing. And she saw a very dark one coming very, very soon. Blindfold needed to do something to prevent it, and she knew how. She walked towards the common room where the New X-Men were lounging around since Naruto left and they were trying to look up stuff on YouTube of the fight from last night, if they could find anything. Cessily and Dust were playing Shogi, Anole and Rockslide were watching Grey's Anatomy; don't ask me why, it's what they like. Hellion, Pixie, and Elixir where on the laptop looking up the vids of the fight, although they were kinda blurry and long range.

"Joshua." Blindfold broke the silence in the room. Everyone turned to sew Blindfold standing in the door way, and Elixir decided to try and welcome her in some fashion. "Oh, hey, Blindfold. Don't see you in here very often. Uhhh…sorry. I mean..."

She knew what he was trying to do, but time was of the essence. "There is a light, yes. But the Darkness is better to see by. It has much to do with seeds. He knows our minds, and means us harm. What intervenes is gold, inlaid with jet."

She walked to Elixir who stood up to see what it was she was getting at, though he kinda wanted to just get to the point of her what she was saying. "Well, y'know, this is going the same way as all our other conversations. Is it ok if we just skip to the part where you pass out and I call Dr McCoy?"

She grabbed his right hand; that was colored his own natural gold. The hand that healed, and would help give life. "What intervenes is gold."

"Ow! H-hey!"

"Thank you, says the patient."

Next she grabbed his left hand; that was colored his new natural black. The hand that poisoned, and would take life. Josh was freaking out now, at what she was doing. "Blindfold! Don't touch me! That's..." But it was too late, the next thing he knew Blindfold just seized and dropped dead, or rather Blindfold had grabbed both of Elixir's hands to put her heart rate down so low, that she gave the appearance of being dead, but no one else knew.

All the other students saw what had just happened and ran over to see what if she was still alive. Hellion voiced what they were thinking, as usual. "Foley! What the hell did you do?"

"N-nothing. I didn't...you saw! She just grabbed both if my hands!"

Pixie was freaking out now, "Oh my God! Oh my God!"

Elixir looked at both of his hands in shock, just wondering why the hell did Blindfold just did that. "And the black area...the part that kills...it was right there. She touched it, and she...she..."

Rockslide wanted to try and ease up his friends shock, it was something Naruto had told them to do if a teammate was too shocked in the heat of things, to help them out of their condition. "Maybe she's not dead! Josh, touch her with your other hand. See if you can bring her back."

"No, I already did. She touched both my hands. Oh God!"

Hellion took the initiative since Surge, David, and Naruto where nowhere to be found. He saw that Pixie was scared shitless of what just happened, though he had hoped she didn't get as scared of things like this since they all got dragged down into hell. "Pixie, snap out of it and go get one of the teachers. Now."

Pixie stooped shaking and flew looking around for Pryde and Rasputin, or rather the former since she was smarter than the latter. "Y-yeah. You're right. You're right. I'll bring Ms. Pryde. She'll know what to do."

* * *

-Shadowcat &amp; Colossus-

* * *

Kitty and Pete had pulled out the compartment for the secrutiy system that was housed in the mansion, and Kitty was trying to tell her boyfriend why The Shining was considered horror, even if some of the things she was telling him wasn't so scary. "Then he wheels around the corner and he sees these two creepy girls."

"Little girls are scary?"

"They're dead girls Petey." Ah, that would make sense then...well except to the steel skinned X-Man. "Logically, Katya, that makes dangerous."

Kitty sighed at her boyfriend's misunderstanding of the concept. "It's not about logic, Mister Dialectical Materialist. It's about the shiver down your spine. The thrill of the..." But then she stopped after having he ears popped for no reason. Although Colossus didn't get the same treatment for his ears, he was rather interested as to what his girlfriend was getting at. "Of the what?"

"Of the unexplained..." She out her finger to her mouth and bit down on it a bit in concentration, a pet peeve that she had since high school. "Did your ears just pop?"

"My ears never pop." Of course they don't, not when you have more weight over most people on the planet and are able to bring out steel armored skin to coat your entire body.

"Son of a...Petey, I think the pressure just..." And she knew that the air pressure increased only when a storm was coming in, or...a fiery blaze from an explosion, though it looked more like the latter. As they both were caught off guard by an explosion that came from the wall behind them, and they saw a few figures descend from the opening in the hall. The Acolytes, once followers of Magneto and his extreme agenda before he became to soft and gave up the crusade against Humanity. Their numbers now consisted of five people now after the years: Unuscione, Frenzy, Random, Tempo, and their leader Exodus. He raised his hand to give the orders. "Deal with these X-Men, and retrive the books. The killing, I'll do myself."

* * *

-Xorn's Hideout-

* * *

Xorn had been watching the whole thing from both of Magus' eyes, at Mississippi and in Westchester. It came no surprise to him that Uzumaki would easily one up and force the Marauders to retreat, but they still got Rogue before teleporting out and bring the house down on them. Now he was watching Shadowcat and Colossus contend with the Acolytes, they didn't stand much of a chance when Exodus fielded Tempo against them, so could edge could stop time, though keeping it locked out a large strain on her body. And Cable taking Providence Island out to kill both Gambit and Sunfire? Wow, now that was just overkill.

Xorn tapped the image of each member of both groups members and already had one member to recruit after all was said and done here, but he also would need agents, people that could be used and kept in the dark for future assignments and could be 'cut loose' from the Akatsuki if necessary.

"So who will be our next member?" Xorn turned his head to see that Shin was now up and walking with the bandages still on him covering up most of his body except his right eye, where a newly placed Sharingan was shown, leaving it his only source of vision at the moment.

"Ah, you're up good. I had a feeling you'd be up soon to see who we could use at our disposal and whom the next recruit will be." Xorn punched up the faces of the Marauders and the Acolytes and showed them to Shin. "I had Magus watch and record both groups here, and this one..." He brought one face above the rest and highlighted his entire file with his abilities and history, "...this one will be our next recruit for a member of our group.

Shin was reading what he could do and his psychological profile, and saw that this one could be of great use to them. "He will be very our cause and endgame, but what about the one who he allied himself with? Sinister? Should we kill him once we bring _him_ over to our side?"

"No, not yet. We'll need Sinister as a bargaining chip, or rather, one of the bargaining chips for a future member that may not be so inclined to join our group at first, but she'll come around once we hand him over to her, along with a special something that she's currently to acquire." Xorn pulled up a future Akatsuki member up over the screen and displayed everything about her.

Shin read everything about her and widened his eye at who she was, and what she could do. He grinned and spoke on his opinion about her. "Now, _she _will probably be one of the best additions to the Akatsuki."

"Yes, and then we will only need to seek out the last three that will come to us, in due time..."

* * *

_**Alrighty then, part 1 has been completed, so tell me what you guys think. I know that I had quite a bit of exposition and not enough of other things to make up the chapter, but I had to explain a couple of things for those who don't know too much about the enemies in this chapter. So let me know what you guys think, and continue to favorite, follow, read and review this story. And please do leave a review other than just a few words, while it's all good and well, these things don't help me become a better writer, tell me what you guys liked and disliked about the chapter so I can continue to do the good things, and correct the bad things. And make sure to stop by my profile and vote on the poll if you haven't yet. See ya guys later :)**_


	18. Chapter 17: Blinded by the Light Part 2

Chapter 17: Blinded by the Light

* * *

-Naruto and the Senior X-Men-

* * *

"Weeeelllll...I think things coulda gone, a lot better..." Naruto had brought out his Susanoo before the house collapsed on top of them and they sank down into the basement. He had his Susanoo covering them all with its arms while they transformed to give some light to everyone down with him. Emma was unconscious with Cyclops trying to wake her up, Omega Sentinel was helping Cannonball up after he took a blow in the fight when Scrambler regained sense, and disrupted his blast shield, Wolverine was healing up and taking out the knives that Riptide threw at him, while Hank was digging Bobby out of the ground. Surprisingly Iceman had been put down right with them, most likely he was already on top of a weakened support beam upstairs and he dropped right before everything else did on top of them.

Emma began to stir and was shifting through what info she was able to get from Malice and Arclight before the fight began, and Cyclops turned to Naruto. "Can you get us out of here? We need to get to the Blackbird and get back to the Institute."

"Sure, no problem, Slim."

The forums above shot dirt and debris into the air as the Susanoo shot it's arms up and brought itself out of the hole that was Mystique's house.

Cyclops was mentally beating himself right now. He put Rogue in charge of the team, and practically two of them were out for their blood, while Karima could've been a potential enemy, thanks in due to Naruto ripping out Malice from her. He needed to get back to the school, but they also needed to track down the Marauders and bring them in. No telling how many others they've probably killed, before they came for them.

"All, right. Here's the drill: Cannonball, take Omega Sentinel and Ronin with you. I want you three to head out with Blackbird One and get over Midwest State air, in the event we need you to get to anywhere in the country fast with ease. The rest of us will hang back here to recover while we contact the Institute for Colossus to come with Blackbird Two to pick us up. Emma will update you once she regains consciousness and she's able to make sense of what she got from some of the Marauders. Understood?"

"Gotcha, Scott."

"Affirmative, Cyclops."

"No prob, Slim." Then Naruto felt something tugging on him. Real hard. He formed a T-handsign with his hands for his signature Jutsu, "Shadow Clone Jutsu." Then a another Naruto appeared in a puff of smoke, surprising Karima a bit at what else he could do along with what she saw. "He back to the school, fast."

The NaruClone disappeared in flash of white moments later to deal with the attack at the Institute.

* * *

-Moments Ago; the Institute-

* * *

Exodus, a Mutant that wore a red outfit that went well with his skin color, along with a yellow stripe going down the center and on his boots and arms, and he wore a white cape. And the Acolytes attacked the Institute, as per orders with his alliance with Sinister and the Destiny Diaries were key to securing the future of the Mutant race. The race he has sacrificed, bleed and almost died for many times. He placed his hand to his temple to use his telepathy to seek out the target, that would have to be, regrettably killed as per orders, while the rest would get the books. "Maintain the time differential at this level, Tempo."

Tempo, a Mutant woman Who could control the flow of time in small areas, like the school, was suited up in an all golden outfit with a helmet that was practically like a bullet, was clenching and unclenching her fists to keep things on the level of slowed time. "I'll hold it...as long as I can Exodus. It's...kind of a strain." She began to sweat inside her helmet.

"Then let's not waste no time. The first target is this way." He found her, or rather where most of the thoughts of the target were.

The Acolytes began to make their way to the common room, where the New X-Men where panicking over what Blindfold just did. Unuscione hated this feeling of walking past people that were slowed the hell down. "I hate slow time. It makes the air feel all thick and slimy."

Frenzy, an African-American Mutant, who had enhanced strength and near invulnerability was a longtime member of the Acolytes, since Magneto ran things. She wasn't one to tolerate complaints from other members and to her, it looked completely unprofessional. "Be stoical, Unuscione. At least you still get to breathe."

They just kept walking until they found Blindfold right on the ground, and judging by how her body looked right now, one would say that she was deader than a doorknob. Random, a mutant that looked like a hard-core biker and had the ability to morph his arms into any type of weapon he wanted, was the first to bring out the question, "Uhh...Chief? Isn't _that_ the first target lying on the floor right there?"

"Yes. It is." How odd Exodus thought that she would have been doing what teenagers normally do in this day and age, but being dead? Something was off, but...no matter.

"Then it looks as though someone may have saved us a job."

Exodus walked over to her body to see if she truly was down for the count. He pressed a finger against her neck, and then check her wrist. "Ruth Aldine. Blindfold. She's dead."

Frenzy bent down to see is what Exodus said was true. "How?" She found it hard to believe that someone got here before they did, and they were the only people who got the order from Sinister.

"I'm examining the minds of these others to ascertain that, Frenzy." Exodus looked to the gold skinned boy kneeling over her. "She touched this one. The Healer. But she touched the dark place on his skin that kills on contact. He has no idea why."

Frenzy then came up with what they had found out with what they were seeing and hearing the thoughts of the kids. "Perhaps she saw us coming." Wanted to go out her way, and not give them the benefit of the kill.

Exodus believed that sometimes that sacrifices must be made for the greater good of mankind. It was one of the things that Magneto told him when he was reawakened after centuries long sleep. But now that their kind was down to a mere measly 200, he did not wish for any more bloodshed, and hated killing his own species, but with what Sinister was saying what he could do..."Well, it's for the best. It would have given me no pleasure to kill her." Children were innocent, and they needed to be simply guided towards the 'proper' path, and he did not wish the blood of children on his subordinates hands, they would certainly regret taking a child's life. "This target is dealt with. Frenzy. Random. Bring me the books."

Frenzy and Random then just skipped past their first objective and headed to Shadowcat's office where the books were stashed, thanks to Mystique's intel while she was here. Random only joined the Acolytes recently since Exodus said he could rebirth the Mutant race with an alliance with Sinister, but he had doubts since both men's methods were...extreme to say the least, and he wasn't really one for violence except when there damn well needed to be. "You ever wonder if we're doing the right thing?"

Frenzy brushed off the question like nothing. "No. Only a fool second-guesses themselves in the midst of a war."

Random raised an eyebrow at that. "Since when are we at war?"

Frenzy kicked down the door to Pryde's office, "Since we where born."

Random just sweat dropped at Frenzy's lack of...punctuality per say. They stepped inside, and as she was tearing the office apart for the books, he took a second look at the door, and what do ya know..."Well, will you look at that. Door wasn't even locked."

"Shut up, Random. I'm tired of your scruples and your handwringing. Either you believe in what we're doing or else...ah!" She finally found them. The Destiny Diaries, books that foretold important events of the future, and the one who held them, held the cards to the fates of many lives. "Here. Exactly where Mystique said they'd be. It's almost a pity. I'd enjoyed dismembering that Russian dumbass to loosen Pryde's tongue. Wonder what the hell she was doin' trying to throw that weird ass knife at us for, wasn't gonna make a damn bit of difference." Oh, how wrong she would be in a few minutes...she handed over the first book to Random as she started collecting the others. Random began to look through it, just to be sure they were the right ones, and to his surprise..."So these are the books we sent to get ahold of?"

"Obviously."

"The big strategic source? The prime target?"

"Yes!"

Then Random showed off what was really there..."Then look at this. Now _you_ tell me who the dumbass is now." Frenzy just dropped the books and had her jaw unhinged just a bit at what she saw...nothing...absolutely nothing. The pages where all blank. _'Fuck...me...'_ Was all she thought. They brought to the rest of the books to Exodus who they quickly gave to, and looked over to be sure they exactly what they saw. And it was true.

Exodus sighed out in annoyance, "Well. It seems that blood must be spilt after all, unfortunately." Exodus closed the book and looked to Tempo, "Tempo, slow us down to normal time."

"What, all the way?" With all these damn X-kids around them, with no idea what they can do?

"These children will not harm us. And neither will the obscene automata massing outside."

"All, right. You're the boss. But this is going to be messy." She was skeptical, still. Though she did as she was told, she brought time back to its normal pace and the kids kept going from when they were actually doing something.

"...could be taking Pixie so long? She only had to..." Elixir was getting really worried now that she hadn't come back, seriously there was only one Kitty Pryde. Though everyone turned their attention towards the Acolytes currently standing next to them. Julian decided to take the first shot at talking, "Hey! Is this open day or something? Who are you guys?"

"I am Exodus child. I am the path that you have yet to tread."

Santo heard about Exodus from Ms. Frost and he wasn't someone that you should be talking to. "Yeah? Be a lot easier to tread on you if you where on the floor." Just as his fist was about to smash in the older dude's face, it broke apart and shattered before it even touched the bastard. "GUUUH!" Hey, even if he was purely made of rocks, he still felt pain.

"I have no time to chastise you. Still less to teach you." He sent Rockslide straight through the wall leaving the kids in shock at the brutality Exodus displayed without lifting a finger.

"SANTO!"

"It's Kitty Pryde I must talk to. The last owner of these books."

Then Kitty appeared phasing through Random and grabbed the book out of Exodus' hand leaving him gob smacked. Tempo apparently also let down the time distortion around Pryde and Rasputin unknowingly. She got lazy hey, everyone does. "The current owner. Don't panic guys. The X-Men are here. And note the plural."

"Dynamic Entry!" All of sudden, time seemed to just slow down for everyone as Naruto, or rather his clone came sailing straight into Exodus' face, with a foot plastered right on his face. It wasn't enough to kill the guy, but it certainly brought a lotta pain with it. Seriously, have you been hit in the face with a foot? It hurts like hell...anyway, Exodus just went through every wall from one end of the school to the other, and out to the backyard.

The other Acolytes were just shocked that their leader had been taken down like nothing, and was caught completely off guard by a kid that also came out of nowhere. They were effectively screwed without Exodus, so that left Frenzy in charge, and with only one option..."Tempo! Get us the fuck out of here!"

"On it!"

"Oh, hell no!" Shadowcat dove straight for her, but she was to late. They were gone just like that in a flash of white, more than likely they stopped time around the school to grab Exodus and bug out.

"Maaaaann...this was boring. I was hoping for a good fight, oh well." The NaruClone said to himself out loud, getting a sweat drop from everyone else. But then he remembered what he also was here for, "Oh, hey Tin Man, Kit-Kat got some news from Slim."

* * *

-The Blackbird-

* * *

Naruto sat behind the pilots seat behind Cannonball with Omega Sentinel in the co-pilot's seat. The real Naruto got a rush of memories after his clone dispelled and he informed the two of them. "Well, good news and awesome news. I had my clone teleport back to the school and tell everyone about what went down, which is the good news..."

"And the awesome news?" Cannonball asked, since that wasn't said very often.

"...awesome news is that they got attacked ,but after my clone showed up and knocked one of the dudes out they ran." Naruto kicked his feet up on a chair and put his hands behind his back in satisfactory of the end result of the mansion attack.

"Wait, they just ran? Who was it that you took down?" Karima was a little perplexed considering that they took one team down without much trouble, but the other just ran with their tails between their legs? It didn't sound like the Marauders.

"Oh, just some yall dude with red skin and was floating off the ground. He wasn't much trouble, though I wonder what he could do?"

Cannonball shifted through the enemies that they had over the years that had red skin, given that only a few had that skin color, although if there were mutants, than it narrowed down to one. "Exodus, gotta be. He's got telepathic power on Xavier's level an' he's also a telekinetic. A real strongin too to boot. It ain't easy bringing him down."

Naruto just raised a brow in curiosity if this Exodus guy was so strong then why did he get the drop on him? His thoughts were interrupted when the Blackbird was suddenly shot and now they were loosing altitude.

"Damn! We just lost the right wing, we gotta land this thing!" Cannonball was now struggling to keep the ship from crashing down. Omega Sentinel was running diagnostics on the ship to see bow long it would last, and to see if it could be repaired, as well as seeing who it was that took the shot at them now flying outside side.

"I have a Cerebra file on him. Sunfire. I'm redirecting power towards our stabilizes, hopefully we can keep the Blackbird in one piece, but someone has to go outside and deal with him."

Naruto unhooked his buckle and went to the door. "I've got him. Ya'll just get tho thing down safely." Naruto saw that Sunfire was flying right outside the cockpit, about to take the Blackbird down no doubt, and judging from the way he looked, and going by his alias, he had fire based attacks witch left Naruto with Water Style. A massive amount of quickly made handsigns that seemed all but a blur to most people with untrained and unspecial eyes. Ox➡ Monkey➡ Hare➡ Rat➡ Boar➡ Bird➡ Ox➡ Ram➡ Tiger➡ Dog➡ Tiger➡ Snake➡ Ox➡ Ram➡ Snake➡ Boar➡ Ram➡ Rat➡ Yang Water➡ Monkey➡ Bird➡ Dragon➡ Bird➡ Ox➡ Horse➡ Ram➡ Tiger➡ Snake➡ Rat➡ Monkey➡ Hare➡ Boar➡ Dragon➡ Ram➡ Rat➡ Ox➡ Monkey➡ Bird➡ Yang Water➡ Rat➡ Boar➡ Bird. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu." Naruto blew out a massive amount of water from his moth that soon took the form of large serpentine dragon with glowing yellow eyes, and it shot straight at Sunfire who barely had any time to register that he was now in a downpour with sme major pressure put on his body.

Sunfire was barely able to keep himself afloat with his power and he crashed down onto the ground in the mountain that they were currently over. Naruto felt that the Blackbird was now going down into a nose dive and he needed to act quick. He transformed into his Tailed Six Paths form and flew right underneath the jet to try and bring it down as he extended his arms in a white chakra glow to grab the edges and put it down safely.

Cannonball and Omega Sentinel stepped out of the Blackbird to inspect the damage done and saw that there was no salvaging the jet and it needed to be ditched. Naruto still clad in his shroud had the two in awe of what he looked like, Karima wanted to see if she could get some sort of power reading on him, but saw that her instruments were dead when she zeroed in on him. That told her either she wasn't functioning properly, or that he was on a different level of power altogether from the Phoenix, so she went with the latter since she decided to do a quick scan on Cannonball and saw that she got a reading off of him.

"Nice save there, Naruto." Cannonball thanked the young ninja.

"No prob, just wished we could've salvaged the jet, would've made getting around easier for us."

Karima walked over to where Sunfire was now down on the ground, still breathing and conscious. She grabbed him and brought him up to her face, hey she used to be a cop, and she got interrogations done with relative ease, so this man wouldn't be any different. "Alright, Sunfire. Start talking before I start to get more acquainted with my Plasma Caster." Hey, she never said she played the 'Good Cop' back in the day.

Sunfire began to form words out of his soaked mouth, "I won't talk, but I will say that we have the drop on you."

"No, you don't. You're alone right now with help miles away, and you have no where to go with us blocking your way. Now, let's try this again..." Karima had her soul Plasma Caster right in Sunfire's sweating face.

Omega Sentinel finally got what information out of Sunfire from what she could get and explained it to Naruto and Cannonball. "They started as far away from us as they could get. Then spiraled in slowly, so we didn't see them coming. Vargas? Who cared about Vargas? No one. Who knew if he was alive or dead? Then there was a Priestess...the Dark Mother. They had to wade through a couple of hundred nuns to kill her. But I guess sacrilege doesn't bother Sinister or the Marauders, any more than murder does. The body count kept climbing. They took out a building in Dresden...the Wohnhas Strucker. They simply burned it to the ground. 83 dead, 150 injured. And by then...they were ready to take the big guns. The ones who were guaranteed to out up any fight. Gateway, who is still currently MIA since they haven't found him, yet. The Witness, Quiet Bill...and Cable..."

Sam, was shocked that they had been able to kill Cable. The man always was prepared for some sort of fight, hell...he taught Cannonball everything he knew. He was like a father figure in a sense to him. "Ah, gotta get out to Providence Island and see if Nate's alive."

Karima placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him the sad news. "Sunfire was the one to take care of Cable, and he set the island to self destruct to keep Sinister out of his database. I'm sorry Sam." Karima was also sad that her teammate was now gone, but they had to keep moving right now.

Naruto spoke up over the two senior X-Men. "We take Sinister out...permanently, if we get the chance. Otherwise we head back to Slim and the others and wait for the second ship to pick us up, unless you guys can fly?"

Both of them nodded, but then Karima raised the question about Sinister. "Why do you want to kill Sinister? Has he done anything to you?" She just met this teenager, and had a feeling that he hardly knew Sinister, so why was he on about killing him.

"Because, someone once told me that there are some people that need to be put down, and Sinister is one of them. Sometimes the world can't move forward with people like him still existing." Jiraiya was one of those people that tried to tell him to quit chasing after Sasuke, believing that he was no different from Orochimaru. He was prepared to kill Nagato and Konan when they stood against peace and order for the future. And even Jean had told him that sometimes, dark things were needed to ensure that people could see the light at the end of the day.

* * *

-Sinister's Lab-

* * *

Sinister was not happy, not one bit. He was examining former Mutant corpses to see what had made them loose their mutations, and what he could do to jump start the X-gene once more, and what he needed right now, was future knowledge. Hence why he sent the Marauders and the Acolytes to ensure that he, and only he knew the future. While they succeeded in taking out the smaller targets, the X-Men on the other hand, did not go down...at all...they ultimately failed. He stopped his examinations and spoke to his subordinates. "I told you at the outset, my Marauders, that a partial success in this matter counted as a failure. So how do you account for yourselves?"

The Marauders only came back with Rogue, who was part of their plan, while the Acolytes came back with nothing at all. No one said anything since Blockbuster and Harpoon had tissue up their noses with blood _still_ coming out of them, Lady Mastermind was occasionally casting a glance back down to her Icha Icha, just to get some entertainment, and Exodus was still nursing a shattered jaw and trying to regain mental strength.

Mystique decided to try and save some face and spoke to the twisted scientist, "Apart from Bishop, who still hasn't surfaced, we've taken out all the live targets."

"That does not excuse the fact that you all still failed, regardless if you took care of the other targets and acquired Rogue herself. You should have been able to take care of the X-Men easily. Taking one of their combat teams down, and damaging their infrastructure should have been the least you could do, if anything at all. Not only that you failed to bring the diaries as well." Sinister had a scowl on his face as he spoke down to Mystique and momentarily cast a glance to Exodus, since the diaries and killing Blindfold was his job. But he also saw that Malice was not among them with the Omega Sentinel as her body. "Where is Malice."

Mystique further tried to defend themselves. "Some kid with weird eyes stopped us in our tracks from killing them. And he claimed to have ripped Malice out of Omega Sentinel with ease."

Regan then threw her two cents in. "And he's a sexual genius~..." She had a far off look away from the others with them sweat dropping at her antics, though Sinister did not.

Frenzy recalled the kid with weird eyes, "Wait that kid that had purple rippled eyes? White hair with a white trench coat with flames on the bottom?"

"Yes, that as him."

"He was the one that stopped us from getting any answers about the diaries."

"What?! I told you here they were." Mystique had enough time to look around the school for where the diaries were hidden, though it seemed like she had been duped.

Sinister on the other hand, was a little interested abit this 'kid'. He took what he had from what his subordinates said. Now Summers was fielding a student from what he imagined, and with what he could do, it sounded as if he could be an Omega level. Ripping Malice out of Omega Sentinel, defeating the Marauders, knocking Exodus out cold without him even registering his presence, possible teleportation between miles, possibly the world, and strength that rivaled Blockbuster and Harpoon together.

Exodus however was able to talk again, and told Mystique about what they found out with the books, "Your information was incorrect. Those books were fakes."

"Then you should have stayed and located the real ones." Mystique said as if it were the obvious choice, though Frenzy stepped up and defended her leader. "Hey look here bitch. We didn't stand a chance against that kid. He took Exodus down like nothing, and we were outnumbered, if you're so antsy to get the books, go do it your own damn self!"

"Why you..." It looked like a cat fight would ensue between the women, but Sinister stopped them cold in their tracks, as he didn't want his lab to sustain any damage. His work was crucial for rebuilding the Mutant race.

"Enough! Even if they still have the diaries, then someone among the X-Men knows where they are." He walked over to a chair with a helmet in the seat that had several cables and wires attached to it. He placed it over his head and began to search out for his answers to the diaries, and this boy that stopped both the Marauders and the Acolytes. "And thanks to the genius of Charles Xavier...I know where the X-Men are."

* * *

-Xorn's Hideout-

* * *

Xorn sat in his chair as he watched the exchanges between Sinister and the Marauders. It was hilarious that they though that they could actually win against the X-Men with Uzumaki in tow. What was even more entertaining was that Sinister still thought that he was in control of the situation.

Magus soon popped out of the ground and handed him a piece of paper that he acquired from a hospital in Alaska. "I have the medical status of the woman that you asked for."

"Thank you, Magus." Xorn took the paper and read what her status was. Louise Spalding had come into the hospital about five to six hours ago after he water broke with her mother. The father, whoever he was hadn't been notified at all, so it's assumed that he was just a one night stand. Not surprising. She had been in bed for the past few hours walking and eating like any pregnant woman would, though now the doctors where becoming worried about the woman and the baby since so far nothing had happened with the intervals between contractions, and they debating whether to let nature run its course, or to perform a C-Section to ensure both their survival.

"Shin, I believe we make a small move move soon..."

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

After the Acolytes fled with their balls chopped off, Kitty had taken Blindfold down to the med bay since Prodigy had explained that she touched both of Elixir's hands on purpose so she could be resuscitated, and luckily Hank had hologram program to walk the non medical smart people through the process of getting he back.

Elixir would try to fix her, but he wasn't sure if he would do more harm than good. The holo-Hank talked over the co fused staff and students, _"The first priority with coma is to reoxygenate the blood. Check the airway, then apply an oxygen mask. Inject with 20 G of pyridine per fifty pounds of body mass. If the coma is hypoglycemic, then administer glucose in the form of..."_ aaaaaannnd this was taking too long.

"Fast-forward, Petey. What does he say about blood pressure?" Kitty told her boyfriend whom was handling the remote while she was getting Blindfold ready for what they needed to do. She got the gist of it, but she mostly needed the main details of what was needed. Hellion was looking through one of the cabinets for some Pyridine, but nothing of the sort was fond by him. "Pyridine? There's nothing labeled Pyridine!"

Dust was looking through another, and actually found it, "It's here, I think. This is it's commercial name."

Kitty took it from Dust and had a needle and a syringe ready to start things up, she had Elixir place his golden hand over Blindfold's head to jump start the process. "Ok. Ok. Josh keep your hand right there. Don't break skin contact with Blindfold for a moment."

No pressure, right? "I won't." Yeah his tone and face said otherwise. Kitty injected the drugs into her neck to get oxygen to her brain faster, though as she finally got the needle right out of her neck, Emma contacted her telepathically and scared the living crap out of her, causing her to drop the used needle on her foot.

_"Pryde."_

"Ow! Later, Emma! I'm practicing surgery without a license!"

_"There may not be a later. We need to talk now."_ The next thing she knew was that her astral from was being brough out of the roof and floating in front of an astral Emma._ "No! Don't don't do this! Emma, I'm needed down there! Ruth...Blindfold...is in a coma! The longer we leave her, the less chance she has of waking up."_

_"I won't keep you. In objective time, this will take less than a second. It's about the Destiny Diaries."_

_"The diaries are safe. Exodus showed up to steal them, but then Naruto came and kicked his ass, forcing them to high tail it outta here."_

_"You probably don't even remember, but those diaries that they found were fakes. Decoys."_

Kitty was actually confused by all of this since she did have the originals, or so apparently sue thought._ "What? Then they're perfect copies, right down to the creases and spines."_

_"No, they're blank. But you and everyone else have been conditioned to see them as real. My word for you is 'Spark'. Remember?"_

That's when it finally came to her, like an activation code for a sleeper agent, or a repressed memory. _"My God! Yes. Yes I...Scott's study a few months back. I told him I was scared the diaries might fall into the wrong hands, and he said that the best hiding spot would've been somewhere even I don't know. A tricked memory lapse. Hide the books, wipe the memory, make fakes, then believe they're real. This...won't be easy. Now now."_

_"You'll forgive me for being brusque. But Cannonball, Omega Sentinel, and Ronin are out waiting for the location for retrieval. What's you're word for me, Ms. Pryde? Then I'll be on my way and you can go back to playing doctors-and-nurses."_

_"'Flint'. My word is 'Flint'."_

_"Alright, I'll relay it to them."_ And with that Emma cut off her link to Shadowcat. Unbeknownst to them, Sinister piggy backed the telepathic conversation, and they were now making their way to the location.

* * *

-With Naruto, Sam and Karima-

* * *

After interrogating Sunfire, and receiving the location for the diaries from Emma, the three X-Men had to fly with their own powers over to Flint, Michigan at a much slower pace due to the Blackbird's wing blown off.

As they arrived they found the place pretty much torn down and rotting from nature taking the place back from man. Emma maintained her telepathic link with the three of them to walk them through to the diaries main location. _"Two degrees west of north. What are you seeing, Mr. Guthrie?"_

"Industrial park. Abandoned. Most of the buildings falling down."

_"The structure on the far left is the one you want."_

"Then we're going in."

Naruto took a look around the place and saw that this town was ripe for setting up an ambush. "Well, I think it's probably the best thing to do is make an exit door if we need to get the hell out of her fast, sooo...Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Naruto made five Shadow Clones, not surprising to Sam, but caught Karima off guard a little. "What all else can you do?" Ripping out souls, transforming, enhanced strength &amp; speed, enhanced reflexes, water manipulation, flight...what was he exactly?

"A lotta stuff, I would tell you, but I don't think we have much time." He glanced over his shoulder as he began to feel multiple KI closing on them, coupled with Emma giving them a heads up. _"There's something you need to be aware of. A psionic dead spot, forty miles away and heading towards you."_

Naruto motioned for his clones to scatter to get ready to take the enemy by surprise when they made a getaway with the books. Emma directed the three of them throughout the desolate building and they finally arrived at the hiding spot, buuuuttt...they ran into some trouble.

"Well, this is a bit of a problem." Naruto said out loud.

The whole room was now literally covers in debris from the roof collapsing on the floor sometime ago before they arrived. "Gimme a sec, maybe I can cut the search time down...", as Naruto was about to make more Shadow Clones to look for the books, they heard a wall back where they came in get torn down, courtesy of Blockbuster.

Sam spoke up their current situation, "Looks like we ran out of lead time, guys."

Omega Sentinel got multiple reading on her radar on her HUD. "I count up to ten enemies. All mutant. Marauders most likely." She had her faceplate down and weapons at the ready for combat. Naruto on the other hand, had a different idea in mind. "Hey, the books are water proof right?"

"They're in a red plastic container that's been proofed for all environmental damage." Karima responded. "Why?"

"I got an idea."

Outside the Marauders and the Acolytes came in full force to try and get the books, Sinister deemed it adequate to have all of them there in the event that the kid showed up again. They could get some more info on him and hopefully get a better gauge on him to fight him the next time they met. Mystique talked it out loud over everyone, but she directed her words more towards Scalphunter and Frenzy, in lieu of Exodus whom was back at Sinister's lab. "We'll split up and take them from two sides and have a third outside to cut off their exit. Scalphunter Frenzy, choose your teams."

"My team chooses itself. I'm guessing yours does, too." Scalphunter said to her.

Frenzy had the Acolytes scatter arond to make sure the exits were covered and ready to take down anyone that got out.

Lady Mastermind, Gambit, Sunfire, and Harpoon, who finally ditched the tissues up his nose, went with Mystique, while Vertigo, Blockbuster, Arclight, Riptide, and Prism went with Scalphunter. Regan decided to show a bit of humor before they got their hands dirty. "Hey, this is gonna be fun, boys and girls. While it lasts."

Scalphunter started giving out orders to his makeshift team. "Riptide, take point. Anything moves, you just turn it into runny chuck steak."

"Well, that would be my pleas..." He was cut off, very violently I might add, as Cannonball shot through the floor beneath them and grabbed Riptide by one of his arms to prevent him from spinning. "Hey there, Janos. Enjoying the ride?"

"Cannonball! I'll flay you to the bone!" Yeah you'd be pissed to and giving out death threats if you were in his position.

"Not inside my blast field, you won't." Cannonball boasted to the Marauder, though he was hoping he took the bait...

"Well, let's see about that."...and stupidly he did.

Mystique's team on the other hand heard the tad bit of explosion, but where staying on guard for an ambush. They stopped abruptly as they heard something comng towards them, though they were too late to evade what was coming as Cannonball with Riptide still in his grip, came through the wall and he threw the mutant right at the other Marauders garnering some expressions of pain from them. "Bombs away!"

"RRRGH!"

"AAAHHH!"

Cannonball flew up to where Naryto and Karima where standing on the support beams and where primed to initiate Naruto's plan for the other Marauders. "You two ready"

Naruto nodded as he looked to Karima for readiness. She gave her own nod and they flew down towards Scalphunter's group and gave them one hell of trap. Naruto formed the signs for a Water Jutsu, while Karima had her core relay formed in her hand at the ready as Cannonball would play the decoy for them. "Three. Two. One."

Naruto spat out a massive flood of water as Omega Sentinel shot her core relay towards the water. Originally it's purpose was to lower the core temperature of an environment to traverse harsh ones, thought hr effect would be just as beneficial as the water that Naruto brought out soon froze the rest of the Marauders in ice.

"Woohoo! I knew this was gonna work. My clones also should've taken care of the others outside, so it's all smooth sailing from here." Naruto said as he dusted his hands off in appreciation of their work. Hey, he had some brilliant ideas every now and then.

Cannonball came back to Omega and Naruto, "Bought ourselves a window. Let's make the most of it." He took a glance at the frozen Marauders, as they were beginning to melt out, Arclight was already shivering and trying to wiggle out of the ice, "'Cause they're not gonna stay like that for long."

Naruto started to look at the water that he spat out as it started to wash up debris from the bottom of the floor. "Ok, let's see...there!" Naruto pointed to the now floating red cap with an X on the top. He walked out on the water leaving Karima with a slightly slacked jaw expression. "Ok, we got we came for. Let's get the hell out of here." The three X-men made their way outside to fly back to the school, though unaware of who was going to stand in their way.

* * *

-The Institute; Med Bay-

* * *

"And clear!"

"Nothing. There's no response."

"Then we try again..."

Shadowcat and the students had been trying to resuscitate Blindfold, thigh to now avail. Oh, how Kitty wishes the NaruClone had stayed instead of dispersing in that smoke back his original self.

Dust began to worry about the safety of her friends condition right now after multiple attempts to jumpstart her heart. "We can't try again, Ms. Pryde! We could damage her brain."

"That's what Josh is for, Sooraya. He heals the damage as we go. I'm going to keep doing this until..." Kitty was about to start again, but then Blindfold's hand shot up all of a sudden to stop her. "Ruth! Oh, thank God!"

Blindfold sat up for a bit and spoke for only a moment before she passed out, "Must we? I suppose we must. But not yet. Ring the bells. Sound the alarms. He's coming! Oh, he's coming! Somebody has to warn them!" Then she fell back down unconsciously, back into a sleep to recuperate from having her heart restarted the way it did.

* * *

-Naruto's Group-

* * *

Naruto, Karima and Sam were flying back outside the building and it seemed that everything was going fine, that was until Naruto sensed a brand new killing intent all of a sudden, that had appeared instantaneously in front of them. He saw his face for but a split second and knew who he was, _'Sinister...'_ The guy that had been obsessed with Slim and Jeannie...and practically almost ruined their lives.

Sinister saw the boy's glowing form and got a good look at him, he smirked a bit at a thought that passed through his head. Nonetheless, he was just a minor thing in his objective, he needed the diaries regardless if they Rogue alive, "Why do I take the trouble to delegate...if I end up doing everything myself?"

He thrust his hands outwards to the three X-Men and sent a telekinetic burst out towards them, Naruto was able to sense it coming, oddly enough, and got lucky. Karima and Sam, were not so lucky as they both went spiraling out of control and almost hit the walls had Naruto not have grabbed the two of them, they would've been out cold. Naruto, was still floating in the air with his teammates in his ethereal arms made by the cloak, he stared Sinister down with a murderous stare. If looks could kill, Sinister would've been dead the moment Naruto saw him. "So...you're Sinister..."

"My, my...you are an odd one indeed, no wonder my Marauders had lost, and it seemed that the Acolytes were at least smart enough to retreat before they too ended up in such terrible conditions. You've peeked my interest, who are you?" Sinister spoke to Naruto hoping to goad the boy in telling him something, though he got an response from him...just not the one he was hoping for...

"In your last moments, wether it be now, or the future, I'm going to kill you...regardless what anyone says or does to me." Naruto was reminded of Orochimaru by this man, he still hated Orochumaru to the bone, regardless if he helped in the war.

Sinister's smirk dispersed after the boy's words. He saw the look in his eye, and he knew that he was serious about it, unlike the usual death threats that the X-Men slung at him...he found it annoying and worrisome at the same time.

"Many have tried, and many have failed. You are no different brat."

"I think you may find me different from everyone else, I tend to prove bastards like you wrong. Limbo Hengoku." Naruto said his words and then he teleported back to the mansion with Karima and Sam along with the diaries, in a flash of white.

Sinister raised a brow at that, but the next thing he knew was that he was just sucker punched right in the face that sent him through multiple walls and now he saw that the roof was collapsing down in him. _'Well, damn...I pried too much and now I'm paying for it, oh well. He's going to be quite the source for future entertainment.'_

* * *

-The Institute-

* * *

Blindfold started talking out loud in her bed, even though she was still weakened by having her heart stopped and then restarted. "The light fades. But we're still blind. The battle eats the soldiers. The road maps hide the road. Johnny's coming home, but he's not marching. I don't see how he could march after being blessed like that. And the mother will cry. And the machines will sing. And we'll all go running to our places. If we can find our places...in the dark."

Naruto had brought Karima and Sam down to the Med Bay for Hank to give them a second look at after their fight with the Marauders and the Acolytes. Naruto went back to his room and thought about his Limbo's lack of power...he originally thought that it would've been really useful, and it was, but it lacked the power that Madara's had. That, and that they didn't last for very long. He needed to get them up to Madara's level, but his Shadow Clones couldn't use them unfortunately, but maybe he could get his Shadows to use other Jutsu, now that would be a deadly sight to see, or unsee, depending on your point of view, never the less, Naruto had work to do.

"Dammit. I need to work on the Limbo stuff, like bad..."

_**'Why? You have a lot of other jutsu that can give you a real edge already? Why **_**that**_** one?'**_

_'Because most of my other Jutsu's could technically be countered...'_

_**'If someone had the actual knowledge to do so, which is pretty much zippo, for now that is.'**_

_'It really is a huge advantage, I mean I was only able to sense the Shadows because of you, and Sasuke was only able to see it with his Rinnegan. I don't think even Frosty and Rach could sense them out since they technically don't have minds of their own. Not only that, the last few times that I used it, my shadows didn't last as long and neither did they pack a big enough punch, if you remember what it felt like...'_

_**'Not my most fond memory, but what's the point with it? You can just use it as a last minute trump card to get out of a bind.'**_

_'True, but I could use it for a long term engagement...and a few pranks too, for the hell of it.'_ Naruto had a shit eating grin and rubbed his palms together in a devious way.

_**'Somehow I saw that coming...'a**_

* * *

-Alaska-

* * *

"We're almost there! I can see her head, keep pushing, Louise!"

Louise Spalding had been in labor for well almost a day, and the doctors were getting worried about her and the baby. She hadn't made a sound as she started to push her girl out, and she wasn't going to let this male her yell in pain. She was a strong willed woman, and she wouldn't give in to the pain, and she wanted to make sure that she heard her little girls own cries of being brought into the world.

"There! She's out!" The delivery doctor said as she brought her child out into the open, but something was wrong and they weren't sure about it...

"Doctors please, what's wrong with my baby girl?!"

The doctors and nurse began to try and give the baby resuscitation and finally they heard the baby's cries, Louise was now crying tears of joy. In all her years, she never thought that she would ever be a mother...though she would end out that it would be even longer than she thought before she became her baby girls mother...

* * *

-Xorn's Hideout-

* * *

"Well, I'd say that we now have the Purifiers' attention." Xorn was watching a tapped video feed of Matthew Riseman preparing his soldiers to begin the hunt for the so called 'Mutant Anti-Christ'. It didn't take much at all, all he had to do was let the now hungry and dealt Predator X out into the open, and let the Purifiers believe that it was theirs...how hilarious that they bought it, and now they were trying to bait it to the Institute, though it immediately turned tail and headed towards Alaska. The same place where Louise Spalding just gave birth to a healthy baby girl...as Xorn was watching the monitors a single person came from behind him and kneeled down in respect to him.

"Sir, is it time?"

"It is. You know what to do."

The figure got back up on his legs and teleported away to wherever he went. Shin walked up behind Xorn and stared at the monitors along with him, and Magus had come out of the ground to watch the whole spectacle.

"So, the tip to Sinister was good?" Shin asked in curiosity, it was anonymous that was sent through several back feed channels into his network, to ensure that Sinister believed that he himself had discovered the child's birth place.

"It worked flawlessly, Sinister suspects nothing. I had to do quite a bit of sneaking and hiding from him and his people to avoid being discovered. He's familiar with my species as he's experimented on them multiple times." Magus said with disgust towards the sadistic scientist, he hated the man with a passion.

"I wonder what he's doing right now?" Xorn pulled up a live feed of Sinister in his lab alone, he was sitting down and looking at one of his older projects on a video monitor. The Summers and Grey family trees from this earth and the alternate earths of their offspring along with clones and siblings, "Oh, is that what you're new little project is Sinister? What a joke..."

Sinister had now gotten out of his chair and erased all the holo-photos with a flick of his hand and only Jean Grey-Summers and Rachel Grey remained. Sinister then added a name next to the the other two women, 'M-Baby' and lined it up next to them, soon Sinister added a final name and photo above the others and linked it to the other photos individually. The photo was none other than Uzumaki.

"He intends to try and create a cross breed between Shinobi and Mutant? Is it even possible?" Shin now saw meaning behind what Sinister was going to try and do.

"He can try, but he will ultimately fail." Xorn knew that Sinister would never be able to accomplish such a thing, and only _he_ would be the one to control Uzumaki's actions. Not Sinister, his time had finally come...

* * *

_**Well, now this chapter is finally done. Soon I will begin the Messiah CompleX event and odds are it will be both freaking enjoyable to write but also a giant pain in the ass. Anyways, I also decided to give you guys a few sneak peeks into the future of this story for the hell of it, so enjoy them and until next time :)**_

* * *

-Of Things to Come...-

"Sooooo...this is California?" Naruto looked left and right around San Francisco and saw that there were a number of many things that could be classified as extremely weird. "It doesn't seem so bad..." Though it was cut short as he saw that there were a few guys dressed as women, occasionally casting creepy ass glances his way..."Ok, I stand corrected this place is fucking creepy."

"It's not so bad once you get used to it." Laura was standing next to him as they waited for the info drop for them. They two teens had recently been put on a new team, a more cloak and dagger team per say...and she decided to show him around the city to stay in her more humanized state of mind, as their missions would force them to cross...certain lines...

"Yeah...tell that to the tranny's looking at me with...whatever they got going through their heads..." Naruto shivered uncomfortably as he saw that one of them winked at him...

...

"So do you guys have fishing where you come from?" Naruto had his hands ready for the little joke he was going to through out to the aliens, safe to say they were getting their patience worn out.

Though they looked at Naruto as he brought his hands together and made a fist of one then started to 'crank' with the other, only throwing up his middle finger them, "See! Fishing!" Naruto decided to show it all off to the Skrulls who, frankly were not amused at all by the ninja's antics...

...

"Jeannie? Is that you? Did you change your hair?" Naruto was just fucking around at first with the woman before he started to get serious and try to talk with her, though it seemed that purposely calling her Jean was a big no-no with Maddie, as she had quite the scowl on her face, "Do not...call me...Jean Grey!"

...

"So what's you're name kiddo?" Naruto sat down next to the ten year old girl that he and the rest of the team where sent to help, the girl had gone off away from the rest of the arguing adults over her future, and she hated it.

But when she saw Naruto, it felt like the air had cleared up, and the mood was so much better. She felt relaxed around him, and she rarely ever did, not with the time sliding that she would go through so much as a child. "Hope. My name's Hope."

...

"Hank said you're one of the best in the field. And that you do have some bit of cosmic power set too, to a degree."

"Yeah...what are you really here for Cap'n?"

"I won't make this offer twice. But right now, I need someone of your skill set, someone that I can trust to watch my back, and the backs of others. We operate covertly to deal with threats before they become threats, Secret Avengers if you will. So...are you in...?"


	19. Chapter 18: Messiah CompleX Prelude

_**And here we begin the Messiah CompleX event! This is gonna be fun...and a giant pain in the ass that will span six chapters at the very least.**_

* * *

Chapter 18: Messiah CompleX Prelude

* * *

-Xorn and Shin-

* * *

Xorn had brought the Predator X out into the Canadian wilderness to give it some space and plenty of room for it to stretch its legs...and to see it in action in the real world, rather than see it kill a Mutant in a containment lab. The Predator X crawled out of the cage that it was imprisoned in for so long, and it was now looking at its master and its accomplice.

"You are now free. But I have a task for you. Consume Mutants that have no place in this world, they will have nothing to contribute to our plans." Xorn placed his hand together in a Ram seal and channels chakra into the animal. It soon began to twitch its head in receiving images into its brain. It had the faces...now the hunt began for more food. It hungered since the elephant Mutant...

* * *

-The Blackbird; Crossing into Alaska moving at top speed; the Uncanny X-Men-

* * *

The flight to Alaska had been relatively quiet, giving Naruto some spare time to write his story. He had finally gotten to the point where he and Sasuke were duking it out at the Valley of the End, end going on missions with his friends from the Leaf Village. He kept his mind on it, until Cyclops spoke to Emma behind him, "You picking up anything? We should be close by now."

Emma reached out and saw that she couldn't sense anyone's minds out towards their destination. "Nothing...which is a bit troubling."

Nightcrawler was copiloting with Cyclops and was a little confused, "What do you mean?"

Wolverine seated behind him, had basically summed up what Emma said, "It's a whole town fulla people, an' Emma ain't hearin' any of their thoughts..."

Angel was sitting behind Wolverine and told him what the most obvious answer was, "It's a trap."

Naruto was inclined to agree, if Frosty couldn't get a single thought from a town, then either they were all killed, or someone dropped a net over the area. Both sounded like traps in his opinion, Cyclops however chose not to assume it was on the other hand, "We don't know what it it, Warren. Not yet. Naruto, can you sense anyone with your own senses?"

"Let me see..." Naruto put the book back into his trench coat and closed his eyes to get a better reading, he drew in the natural energy and opened his eyes in shock, "...we gotta step on it! People are dying in that town!"

Wolverine just slid his mask on and unbuckled himself from his seat to stand up, ready for action, "Told you it was a trap."

Emma however pointed out that a different scenario could be present down below, "There is another scenario that we could be encountering soon."

Cyclops turned his head around fast, but he still kept an eye on their destination, he saw that a bright light was coming from the town, but he couldn't really see well, "No. We don't even want to think about that." The manifestation being the cause of deaths of people, he himself almost did when his eyes began to start shooting blasts and bringing down houses on peoples heads.

Nightcrawler jumped up in his seat, and got a better look at the town, and why he saw shocked him, "Mein Gott...I'm afraid, Scott...that we may not have a choice in the matter." The town was in flames as far as they could see, parts were still getting burned where other areas already took the brunt of the damage.

Emma placed her hand against her temple to get a better reading of the minds down below, "I can...wait...I can hear them now...there are people down there, alive just as Naruto said. And they're terrified..."

Wolverine had seen this scene many times before in his long life, "Looks like a friggin' warzone."

Cyclops gave the order, "Logan, I want you Kurt and Naruto down there. Now." What they had to do was pretty much in their heads: Save as many people as they could.

Naruto and Wolverine touched Nightcrawler on his shoulders as they teleported in a sulfuric cloud down below to the burning town. Naruto immediately made multiple Shadow Clones to go out for search and rescue.

Cyclops opened up the bay doors and had Angel give them recon via air. "Warren, give me close aerial coverage! Find survivors, and keep your eyes open for whoever did this!"

"On it!" He leapt out into the air below the Blackbird and started searching and relaying civilians to the other X-Men below him.

Emma got up and sat down in the copilots seat, "And what about us, Scott? No orders for me?"

"You and I are going to find out the truth here, Emma...and pray that it isn't what it looks like...that a mutant didn't do this." Cyclops set the Blackbird down on to an open area large enough for the jet, and disembarked to help with the survivors and get answers.

Naruto had been finding helpless people here and there and with the clones help of course, he had found at least 50 people that were still alive, another 20 barely clinging to it, so he did what he could to get them out of the red zone, and a whopping 150 dead.

Dammit, he hated this...whoever was responsible for this was going down. He originally decided to head to the hospital as it was crucial that he find any survivors there, he pretty much learned back home that it was essential and that sick and dying people were more than likely need his help. As he got there he sensed that there was only one survivor inside.

They were up on the second floor from what he could and he saw an open window that had glass shattered and had a body hanging out of it. He walked up the side of the building to gently take the body out of the way for him to get in and he ran down the hallway to find the survivor. He got to the door and kicked it open to see that a red haired woman was lying down on the ground with a piece of glass from the nearby window had been broken, embedded in her back where her spine was, she was bleeding out but not enough to endanger her life, he went over to pull out the glass shard and started to heal the damage done to her back and stop the bleeding. "Ok, sorry for trying to make things bad for your back, but I gotta pull it out or you won't be able to walk again." He saw a clipboard with what could have been her name and read the name, "Louise Spalding...I'm sorry that you got caught up in all of this."

He picked her up and started to get out of the hospital, and head to the other survivors, unaware of what had actually happened inside the hospital.

Nightcrawler had been teleporting to and from survivors with a few NaruClones in tow helping out greatly.

Emma and Cyclops had helped an elderly woman out of her house as it was about to collapse, and conversed on what could be the cause of said destruction. "What else can we think, Emma? We're looking for the first mutant since M-Day and we find a disaster instead."

"If our new mutant did this, Scott, it must have been an accident. A reaction to the onset of mutation." Emma had reasoned, it wasn't uncommon for this to happen to certain mutant with wild powers.

"What if blowing up the town was his mutation? I nearly killed people when my abilities appeared...and I'm far from the first to have that problem."

Wolverine had been scowering for the scents of whoever did this to the town, but instead of finding someone unfamiliar, he found an old foe instead, or what was left of him. He turned over to Cyclops and Emma and told them, "Hate to break it to you, kids...but this wasn't any accident. It was just what it looks like...a battle. And a mutant was responsible...just not the one you're thinking of." He motioned downwards for the answer.

Emma was actually a little intrigued, "Is that one of the Marauders?" By this time Naruto had arrived with Louise in his arms, and had set her down to get a better look at the mutant, and he knew who he was as he did fight him very recently. He bent down to examine the body and noticed a few things. While he had a shot that took out his left arm, he noticed that he had several cuts on his body, particularly cuts that were very deep and precise.

"It was, yeah..name was Blockbuster. Looks like whatever blew these buildings all to hell tore through him, too. But it looks like he survived, then someone gutted him...and they knew where to cut him up to kill him." He had slashes on his neck, and his stomach with large pools of blood emanating from the cuts.

Nightcrawler had cut in after teleporting over to another set of bodies nearby, bodies that they knew very well..."He was not alone, Logan. You need to see this...all of you."

Naruto was the first to notice, "Purifiers? There were Purifiers here?!" His clones started popping after saving the rest of the townsfolk and knew that there were more than just the two, they had taken heavy casualties. _'Just what the hell are these bastards doing her?! I thought we practically almost wiped them out after the incident at the school!'_

Nightcrawler nodded in response. "Yes...these two here...and four others around town that I saw. All dead."

"My clones just popped, there were actually about twenty more or so bodies. Some I couldn't even recognize. They were cut up just like Blockbuster."

"So whoever finished off Blockbuster killed a lot of Purifiers also." Cyclops had reasoned, he didn't ha e the faintest clue as to who could, or rather want to do so.

Emma walked over to some broken glass, or something that she saw out of the corner of her eye. She looked down to see half of a body, the fave she could barely make out, but she recognized the form somewhat, "And this thing...what's left of it...this was another Marauder. They called him Prism, and Purifiers shouldn't have been able to destroy him like this..." Maybe he too was killed by whoever gutted the other people?

Naruto summarized what they had gathered so far from the bodies and the state of the town, "We missed the battle, maybe half an hour to a full hour maybe at the most."

Cyclops cursed, "Damn it...so Sinister's assassins, a few squads of anti-mutant militants and an unknown enemy of both parties beat us here?" He was confused and pissed, "How the hell did that happen?"

"Clearly, they know something we don't." Wolverine was the type of man to suspect the enemy always had something over them.

Nightcrawler began to think this situation was something else, "Maybe this was some sort of trap? Meant for us, but which snared Sinister, instead? Maybe there is no new mutant?"

"Maybe." It sounded logical for a possibility given what they were seeing. Emma on the other hand, had been thinking of everyone that they had been rescuing, and she now noticed it. "No. There are no children, Scott..."

"What?"

"I just realized...I'm not hearing any of their thoughts...no children. This wasn't a trap..." Naruto sensed that someone was approaching them from behind and he turned around to see a horrific sight...a woman was carrying a charred body of a child that was still smoldering, "...it was a massacre."

The woman saw the heroes and started talking silently to them, "Help me...oh God someone please...please help me..." She had tears streaming down her eyes as she continued walking towards them and held the deceased girl in her shaking arms.

"Oh my God..." Emma was disgusted and shocked by what she was seeing.

Cyclops was careful to approach the woman, as people were unpredictable after seeing and surviving these tragic events, "The child is still smoldering..."

"She's gone, Slim. She's way out there past broken."

Naruto was still to shocked to say anything, he had seen dead people before, some even children, but being burnt to death with no way of defending one selves...it just made him...whatever it was that he couldn't describe. "Frosty, can you put her to sleep? She has to let go of her daughter..."

Emma walked slowly over to the woman and would do that, but she needed to know what she saw before they arrived here, "Don't be so hasty...a little push should be enough..._relax...let your arms rest...your job is done..._" Emma had touched the woman's chin and helped set her and the child down...

The woman was still in shock and despair, "...my baby...Marlene...my little girl..."

Nightcrawler teleported over to the woman to try and help her ease down, and hopefully get some answers, "My God...what have they done to these people?"

"I'm about to find out, Kurt..." Emma placed her hand on the woman's temple to dive into her memory.

Inside the saw the massacre that the Purifier's were waging on the townsfolk...

* * *

-Some Time Ago Before the X-Men's Arrival-

* * *

The Purifiers came out of nowhere and started unloading i to the crowd with their weapons. Guns, rockets, grenades and flamethrowers were slung out and the town was on fire in minutes, already dozens of people were being killed, and they heard the orders that were being given out.

"Take them out! Don't let them hinder the mission!"

"Do not use lethal force on the adults! The adults are not a threat!"

One Purifier saw a young girl, the girl that the X-Men saw smoldering in the woman's arms. Be opened fire with his flamethrower and sprayed the girl with the deadly flames, the woman saw and immediately ran towards her daughter, "NOOOOOO!"

Another Purifier saw that some of the adults were taking their children and others away from the carnage, "We've got runners! Stop them! No one gets away!"

"My God! No!" The woman was doing everything she could to douse the flames on her daughter...but it was to late, and she was gone...she cradled her body in her arms as she slunk away into a nearby alley to get away from all the death and destruction.

One of the Purifiers pulled out an energy reading device of sorts to track down whatever or whoever it was that they were looking for, "Strongest reading is south, about three blocks."

Suddenly they wet blown away by a massive fireblast that melted two of them away, leaving one other alive, only to be grabbed by a pair of muscular arms that belonged to Blockbuster. Several other Marauders were in tow: Gambit, Scalphunter, Sunfire, Prism, Lady Mastermind, Harpoon, and Vertigo.

"We're late." Sunfire was melting away at a few Purifiers.

"But not too late, I hope?" Vertigo had some sort of device on her wrist, more than likely using the same functions of the Purifier device.

"Let's kill these Sapiens and find out." Blockbuster broke the Purifiers neck and grabbed another that was down in the ground regaining consciousness.

Gambit slung out a few of his explosive cards to kill a few Purifiers and clear a path for the rest of the Marauders, "If these hate-mongers have it, we're in trouble."

Vertigo shook her head at what he said, "They don't have it yet, Gambit, or they'd be gone. Sensors say it's still here. But it's not alone. We need to move fast." She decided to warp the minds of a few Purifiers, letting Scalphunter get some head shots to put them down for good.

Blockbuster decided to play around with some of the mutant haters, and catch up with the rest later, "I'll catch up when I finish here." He smashed his fist into the fave of the Purifier that he picked up off the ground, causing him to die instantly.

The woman was watching the whole thing still in shock, and then she saw one of the Purifiers shoot Blockbuster in the shoulder, but it didn't kill him, rather he just got pissed off and turned to kill him, but then he saw the Purifier sliced in half by someone in a black tattered cloak. He held two small swords in each of his hands, and they were covered in blood.

Blockbuster was about to start talking to the guy that got in his way of another Sapien kill, but then all of a sudden the man suddenly appeared in front of Blockbuster with his sword arms stretched out apart from one another, and Blockbuster had deep slashes across his stomach and throat.

He immediately fell down to the ground clutching where he was cut, and he was barely able to speak out, "Wha...why?"

The figure in the cloak spoke to him, as he laid dying on the ground trying to grip his leg, "You have no place in the future of our plans...but you can still be of use, but not in this form." The figure turned Blockbuster in his back and brought the tip of his sword down into his neck further wounding the Marauder, and he took it even further to cut his spinal cord in half, ending the mutants life for good.

The figure pulled out a scroll of sorts and smeared Blockbusters blood all over it and he rolled it back up, placing it in a pocket.

The man disappeared in a shimmer, and then an explosion occurred from the hospitals lobby.

Emma cut the vision as it was the last coherent memory that the woman had, "Damn it!"

"Emma...you ok?"

"I'm fine, Scott, but this is worse than I thought." Emma turned back to the hospital a few blocks away from them, "The Purifiers were just playing it safe. The children of this town were just collateral damage to them..." She contacted Warren up in the sky, _"Warren, where are you?"_

Angel stopped flying around as he was high up in the center of the town, so he had the best view of the place, "Where do you need me to be, Emma?"

_"Do you see a local hospital?"_

"Yeah. On my way. What's going on?" Angel flew down below at top speed, towards the hospital, but he wasn't sure why. He saw Naruto come out of the building with only one survivor, what did he miss?

_"Follow the destruction in the hospital to its epicenter. This wasn't a teenage manifestation...this was a mutant birth."_

He flew through the charred and destroyed hallways, and he found where it started...the nursery..."My God..." The shock was evident on his face, it was filled with sorrow and disbelief, "They killed...babies...those sons of bitches killed _babies_ in case one was a mutant..." Then his face contorted into animalistic anger...he saw the nursery in complete destruction and the destruction of of the room, with the bodies of charred babies still smoldering...it was a sight no one would wish to see...

Nightcrawler teleported everyone into the room with Wolverine immediately trying to get a scent, "Don't touch anything." He walked over to the window of the room trying to smell out anything he could get, but, "I need to...get the..." Nothing. "Damn it."

"Nothing?" Cyclops turned to him wondering how he couldn't smell a lead.

"Nah. Too damn much smoke and chemicals in the air...can't isolate anything."

Nightcrawler, Emma and Naruto walked over to the nursery and began looking at the carnage, Nightcrawler had begun a prayer for the I can't souls, and Emma had picked up a clipboard on the status of the babies.

Naruto on the other hand, was shocked beyond belief, he slowly walked inside the room and got down in his knees, he began contemplating how the hell he missed this.

_"How...how did I miss this? I should've seen it...I could've saved these kids...they could've had a good future..."_ Kurama had cut in after seeing it through Naruto's eyes...his blood boiled at the sight, but he called down a bit sensing his partners despair._** "You couldn't have known. We were focusing on saving who we could, and this happened a while ago. There was nothing we could have done to save them...but...we can make sure that this doesn't happen again."**_

_"This just reminds me of the night I was born. There is no way in hell I'm gonna let whoever did this, get away with it."_

Emma looked over the charts and saw something, "It's not here. It's not one of these."

Cyclops walked over to her and asked, "How do you know?"

"Birth records. Three babies were born here last night. But only two newborns are here." She had seen it after looking back at the records and the room with the infants.

"How sure are you this baby was the mutant Cerebra picked up?" When Cerebra had detected the mutant, power in the whole mansion went down and Emma had gained one hell of a migraine afterwards, somethings you don't see happen at the same time that often.

"Sure. This is why they collided...the Marauders and the Purifiers." Emma started walking back outside with Wolverine and Cyclops, "They were both on a path to this hospital."

"But which one of 'em got the kid?"

"Damn it."

By this time Angel had begun walking outside back to the Blackbird, and Nightcrawler had finished with his prayers, he saw Naruto still down on the ground with a few tears flowing down his eyes. He placed a comforting hand on the Shinobi's shoulders to get his attention, "We must go now, my friend. But don't worry for their souls, they are in Gods loving hands now."

Naruto looked back to his teammate and saw that he too had a few tears as well. He looked back and got up from his kneeling and walked with him, "Yeah, they are..."

As they made sure the townsfolk were alright, Naruto gave one last look at the unconscious Louise whom he had brought out of the hospital. She was one lucky woman if he had to say anything.

As they got back into the Blackbird, Wolverine was the first to say something, "This is as bad as that thing in Stamford, few months back...we should be takin' those Marauders bodies with us. They're gonna blame mutants for this...not the Purifiers."

Cyclops disagreed, as they had saved a lot of lives in the aftermath, even if they came to late to stop the carnage, "The survivors will remember we got them to safety."

"That's not how it usually plays, Slim, an' you know it."

"Well, we have bigger problems anyway...the first mutant birth in almost a year...a mutant so powerful it blew out Cerebra just by being born...is most likely in Sinister's hands. I have a feeling the government is going to be the least of our worries." The X-Men flew off into the night, unaware of the pair of hungry eyes looking at them. It's was created to hunt and feed on mutants, or rather mutants that its master told it to kill and devour. It felt this new arrival with a hunger that nearly staggered it. It knew it's objectives, it knew the faces that its master told it to kill, but this power, it gave an overwhelming urge to hunt and kill it. It used all its strength to push on over hundreds of miles...never stopping...but now that it's here, that scent is leading somewhere else...and it's so hungry.

"RRROOGGGG!"

It roared into the night, scaring away any unwanted creatures, it looked around and saw two mutant bodies that it smelt, and it licked the blood trailing off of its lips that it had consumed a mutant its master ordered to kill, and it recognized the two in the ground: They too were targets, and it began to devour to the content of its dark heart...

* * *

_**And this is the prelude to the Messiah CompleX arc, I know this chapter was short, but it was only one issue, it will span at least six chapters as the event took up thirteen issues. It'll have X-Men, New X-Men, X-Factor, Purifiers, Reavers, Marauders, Acolytes, Akatsuki and the Predator X. So now that you guys have had a taste of the arc, I hope that you guys will enjoy what I will plan out for the arc, so continue to read, review, favorite and follow this story as well as the others that I have on my profile. Also, by the end of the event, I will announce the winner of of the poll for this story, so see you guys later :) !**_


	20. Chapter 19: Messiah CompleX Part 1

Chapter 19: Messiah CompleX Part 1

* * *

-Xorn's Hideout-

* * *

Xorn was watching the news as it detailed whatever they had gathered from the attack hours ago.

_"...tragedy last night in Cooperstown, Alaska, when a quiet town became anything but. A night no one in Alaska is likely to ever forget. At approximately 10:20 PM last night, local residents were rocked by a series of explosions that some believed to be earthquakes...but as they fled their homes, they realized it was much worse. They had come under fire by a private army, the likes of which most government militias rarely encounter. Their mysterious goal in Cooperstown? The cold-blooded execution of nearly every child in town. An almost biblical punishment...with no discernable motive. Police are working hard to verify the identity of these attackers, as the bodies of several were found on the scene. Though it is unclear at this point who, in fact, killed them. Several locals have described a fight between two forces...while others claim a group of super heroes arrived in the aftermath of the battle to help get them to safety. But at this time, the truth about what happened in Cooperstown last night remains a mystery."_

He had left the Predator X with specific instructions on its job and so far it had been doing well, his plan was working so far and it required that no one in the growing Akatsuki to be seen. He had counted on the fact that Frost would be able to pick the memories of the survivors and see the clone that he and Shin had made, but he made sure so that he couldn't be seen or recognized hence the Genjutsu enhanced cloak that concealed his chakra, life signature, appearance, mind and scent.

He didn't want to reveal his hand just yet.

The Marauder bodies weren't found so he had both Blockbuster and Prism done with, and the Predator gained at least two new abilities.

He had things set up in the pocket dimension for the inception process, though odds were it was going to fail, but he had to do it either way. The future of all was at stake if he did nothing.

Xorn turned around to see Shin with some blood smears on him, though considering what he did, it came to no surprise at all. "So, did things with the Hand go as expected?"

He had a far more wicked appearance with the multiple Sharingan now transplanted around and in his new body. The eyes were of course now neurologically connected to Shin's brain and gave him quite literally no blind spots in battle, and with some help from Xorn, he had awakened his Mangekyo, giving him telekinetic control of anything that he had marked.

Shin just nodded and smirked, "Pretty much, I had to kill all of their elder leaders and put their heads on spikes to get my point across. Their head of security was a bit of a joke, though he had 'carefully reconsidered' after a little display of my new powers, and the Hand is now under our control."

"That marks down one of the major organizations that we have. The Hand, Hydra, AIM...and the others will follow suit, it is only a matter of time."

Two more people appeared later, Magus and the Shin clone who had been at Cooperstown during the skirmish between the Purifiers and the Marauders. "And how were your jobs? Were they successful?" He already knew the answer from both of them, though he decided to ask in the event that something surprising happened.

Magus pulled out a canister of metal that seemed to almost move at slow paces, and was somehow alive. "I managed to sneak into the O*N*E* HQ and steal the canister containing the Nano-Sentinels that Cassandra Nova created a while back. We can go ahead with the experiment once we've started the process of altering their coding and structure."

The Shin clone spoke next, and handed Xorn two scrolls that had a small bit of blood showing through the paper. "I was able to acquire the blood of both Blockbuster and Prism, the latter of whom was incredibly difficult to get ahold of, though it seems as though his eyes were still organic in such a sense."

"And the Predator?"

"Still in shadows as it came and devoured both of their corpses." Xorn took the scrolls from him and placed them next to the set of Shi'ar Death Commandos that he had killed several months prior, averting the Grey family massacre.

But they were not the only ones that he had acquired in this world, as several others were stacked in different categories and sets. "Now we have a few more to add to our collection. We have control over a major organization. We now have the means to wage microscopic biological warfare. And soon we will have a key component to our goals." He looked back to the screen with the name 'Baby Spalding' labeled on along with information on it and had a picture of newborn baby girl with a bit of red hair on her head.

As light continues to grow and shine, so too shall darkness spread and consume, unbeknownst to the world that was ignorant of such evils.

* * *

-The Institute; Downstairs Control Room-

* * *

Scott and Emma were watching the newscast and trying to coordinate the fronts of their soon-to-be little mini-war with the Purifiers and Marauders. "They didn't find the bodies of those two Marauders at the scene...or are they covering it up?" It would cross Cyclops' mind as Sinister isn't very big on the public spotlight.

"It's entirely possible Sinister sent someone back to clean up his mess. It's not as if he wants the outside world on his world on his tail any more than we do." Emma had a sound logic and explanation, though the cloaked man came to mind but he had just killed Blockbuster and left him there. So he wasn't the one to grab the bodies from the way she saw it.

"True..." something didn't sit right with him though, "...but it doesn't feel right. These are the Marauders, not the Marines. You saw those bodes...they'd been abandoned." He wasn't a man to leave any of his friends or comrades behind in a fight, before, during or after one. It made him sad that not even some of their enemies that showed some camaraderie to one another didn't share such a sentiment.

Emma sat down and gave her two cents on the matter, "Let's just be content this disaster isn't being laid our feet for the moment, Scott...and worry about why later."

"Good point." He pulled up the message from Forge that he had gotten just a few hours prior. Now if one wasn't in the hero business like he and so many others in the building were, he'd just wave it off as coincidence. But he didn't as he received the message at the same time they went to Cooperstown to investigate. So while he and the X-Men would be busy dealing with the enemies upfront, he needed someone to do some investigating behind the scenes and get to the bottom of things. Although he wasn't too big a fan of the people Emma had called, but he nonetheless knew he'd need their help. "Did you make the call?"

"Of course. Neither of them were happy about it, but they'll be here shortly."

"Good. We need to move fast if we're going to recover this child...so we don't have time for turf wars."

"Scott."

Cyclops turned his head to his father figure and teacher since he was only a teenager walk in.

"Professor."

* * *

-New York City; X Assault Team-

* * *

Naruto had made a Shadow Clone for the Assault Team and had to make sure he lasted a while, not knowing how long this mission was going to last, as the original had to stay back at the mansion as Slim said he needed him for some other things. He stuck to the shadows in the alleyways to avoid being spotted by anyone that was pro-registration, and not get seen after he managed to spank the Hulk around the city. "Huh...I figured that a lot of parts of the city would still look like shit after that whole Hulk thing went down."

_"You'd be surprised by how fast things get fixed around here kid, and stay focused. Findin' these ex-Acolytes is our best shot at gettin' a lead on the Marauders...Warren, you got the location in sight?"_

_"Yeah...but I think I might've been...spotted...OWWW! It's Gargouille! They're here! Go! Go! Go!"_

Naruto came ran through the alleyways and sprang into action as he saw Colossus get flown back by some green blast, "Holy shit. I didn't think he'd actually make airborne with his armor on."

"Oh look, they send in kids now? The X-Bitches must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel these days."

The NaruClone turned around to see a man in black suit with a red V on his chest, along with some shoulder plates and some...tiara on his head? "What the hell is that, a tiara?" He was doing his best not to laugh but he still was chuckling at the queer looking mans appearance.

"What no it's not a tiara, it's uh...dammit...it doesn't matter what the hell it is! What matters now is you're gonna be dead ya little brat!" The Acolyte shot at Naruto with full power, unlike at Colossus just to get away from the tin man, this kid pissed him off, a bright green flame engulfed Naruto and he laughed wickedly, "Oh, and if you're still alive, the name's Vindaloo! Remember that kid!"

"Thanks, I hear from the samurai that giving one's name to an opponent is a courtesy in battle."

Vindaloo looked behind him to see that Naruto was standing completely unharmed and smirking, "What the hell! You were right in front of me! No one moves that fast, not even Quicksilver does!"

Naruto just shot his hand straight into Vindaloo's face, sending him flying back to where Naruto originally stood, only to see that there was a smoking log instead. "What the fuck?" Vindaloo was dumbfounded at this, while the NaruClone was walking towards him, picked him by the neck of his uniform and brought him up to his face, "Alright, where's this Exodus guy. I hear you used to work for him, right?"

"I ain't saying shit to you kid." Naruto had a feeling that it would come to this, though he felt that Wolverine was coming in through the roof and with negative company behind.

The roof blew with Wolverine going through first "Look out, Kid!"

He saw that behind him was a dude that was glowing pink and had his fist pointed right at Wolverine, and by definition who he was coming towards, Vindaloo.

Currently in Naruto's grasp.

And now, knocked the fuck out by a pink pillar shot from Wolverine's pursuer.

And he didn't have to move an inch. "Wow, that was comical. You hit your own guy, without hitting me or making me move an inch. Gotta say, you guys suck for supposedly being big time enemies of the X-Men."

The man called Projector who had been pursuing Wolverine was now on the ground next to Vindaloo, and now trying to get up and run away, only to be hit in the leg with a kunai, courtesy of Naruto. "GYAAA! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT...!"

"Nice shot."

"Thanks."

Wolverine had complimented the clone and walked over to Projector, and grabbed by the neck of his uniform and brought his outer claws to the edge of his neck, and just gave him a look that dared him to bring the middle one out. "Why the hell do you wanna protect a guy like, Exodus? A guy who ya didn't wanna follow in the first place?"

Projector knew it was pointless as of now, since the other former Acolytes were beaten, and while the X-Men weren't killers, he didn't want bluff with Wolverine considering he had a habit of taking off small bits and pieces of his enemies while 'talking' with them, so he just gave in, "All right...all right...fine...what do you want to know?"

* * *

-The Institute; Foyer-

* * *

"I'll need you for two missions and you'll be working with some colleagues, both of whom should be here by now." Cyclops had told the real Naruto that he was needed here more so than in the field right now, given how effective his Shadow Clones could gather info and bring them to him in an instant.

"So who are they?"

"Jamie Madrox, who also goes by Multiple Man. He's from X-Factor Investigations, while we're on the frontlines as the X-Men, they take a more subtle and detective-like approach to situations and scenarios, Jamie can create copies of himself and they work pretty much like your Shadow Clones, so you'll be with him on the mission."

"Sounds pretty simple. But wouldn't he be enough for whatever it is you need from him?"

"It is, you and he will be heading back down to Texas at Forge's lab, he'll explain things from there. Trust me he'll need your help. Once you've finished up with what Forge needs you for, teleport back here afterwards, your team may need you later."

As Cyclops finished explaining his current role, Emma walked into the lounge room with tow men behind her. The one on her right had a green shirt with some giant dots connected to each other from left to right and wore a long coat like his own, while the one on her left wore a simple beige turtleneck and a long black trench coat.

They both did give off that detective vibe, though he noticed that they were both rather annoyed, while Emma was just amused a bit at their expressions.

The one Emma's left turned to her and sounded pretty annoyed and confused, "What are you doing?" He turned from Emma to Cyclops, "Summers, what is she doing?"

"Checking to make sure you're the genuine article, Madrox, and not a duplicate."

Jamie just rolled his eyes at Emma, "Try asking, White Queen. And maybe not with mental suggestions included this time."

Cyclops was confused as to what he meant, "What's he talking about, Emma?

"You wanted them here immediately, so I made sure they had no objections"

Jamie gave Emma a look, "No, you temporarily erased any objections I have about dealing with you people...which is not the same thing."

Emma smiled at the fact that she was able to get under his skin so damn easily, "I told you they weren't happy about it."

Julio Rictor, or just Rictor spoke up to counter her argument, "You like people pushing things around your head, Emma?" Truth be told she didn't, especially when Jean Grey had forcibly dove into her head and had her relive the deaths of her students due to the psychic affair that she and Scott were having behind the redhead's back.

Though she wasn't about to show it. She still had an image and reputation to keep up.

Cyclops rubbed his head in embarrassment, stress and a bit of fear, "Jamie, Rictor...I apologize for the way Emma got you here, but as she told you...this is important. More important than the problems between our two teams."

Jamie caught his facial feature and got a little worried, "What is going on, Summers? I haven't seen you this tense since Proteus tried to eat your girlfriend..."

Naruto who was just leaning by the doorway, was caught off guard a bit by a teenage girl that walked right into the room, and pretty much announced herself to everyone in the room, "Everything's changed."

The occupants of the room looked back to the young blonde teenage girl, around 13-14 years of age who had on a thick white tank top, a blue and black striped skirt, a pair of red and black socks that went all the way up past the skirt, and a pair of blue sneakers. She looked to Naruto and gave him a curious look and tipped up to his face and got a little too close to him, which started to creep him out a bit.

Emma looked to Jamie and was curious as to why, "You brought Layla Miller? That wasn't part of the request."

Naruto decided to break the curious/sorta-knowing stare she was giving him, "Soooo...any chance you're gonna stop staring at me kid?" He already dealt with crap from Konohamaru, he wasn't gonna deal with more of it from anyone else.

It annoyed the crap out of him.

"You change everything."

"Huh? What does that mean?" She better not have some prophecy about him that she's just waiting to say.

Layla walked over to the couch and ignored Naruto, "You changed everything, the past, the future. Everything, and it starts with the baby." The others were a little shocked, though were masked a bit, by what she said about Naruto, while he was just annoyed.

_"Great, some goddamn prophecy about me...I just freakin' know it."_

She hopped up on the top of the couch and just swung her legs back and forth like a kid on a bench, she turned to Emma and addressed the reason why she was here in the first place, though of course leaving Naruto rather frustrated with her answer, "And I know Ms. Frost...and that's why I tagged along. They're going to need me with them for what comes next."

"And what's that? What's coming? You hidin' somethin' from me?" Naruto walked over to her and gave a stink eye, while she just smiled innocently and kept up her 'adorable' look, "It's just stuff I know. That's all, though I don't know entirely what it is, but I know I need to be there. And I know..."

Cyclops summed up what she said when she came into the room, "That everything has changed." He looked at Layla and Naruto for a second wondering how he changed everything, though he chalked it up to her just knowing the 'Stuff' she did. "It's true there's a new mutant in the world. And you're all going to help us save it."

"You still didn't tell me what you know 'bout me."

"I did, you just didn't listen that well. It's just...stuff I know, that's all. But you do change everything."

"..." Naruto just gave her a deadpanned stare, "That's a pretty lame answer."

Jamie just looked to Cyclops, "So who's the kid?"

"He's Naruto, and you and he are going to be working together on this one."

"You're serious, right?" While he didn't have too much of a problem with Layla, he wasn't to keen on a new kid who acted just as immature as she looked.

"Trust me, Jamie. You'll need him." Cyclops led them down into the computer room and gave them the rundown of what happened in Cooperstown and showed them the news footage of the aftermath.

"My God...this...all this destruction and death...was all over a new mutant appearing?" Rictor was shocked at the display of carnage the Purifiers unleashed on the people of Cooperstown.

Cyclops nodded, "And worse than that, we think it was a mutant birth...not a teenage manifestation. The birth of a mutant powerful enough that its simple existence fried Cerebra off the grid."

Jamie threw his two cents in, "And you think Sinister has this baby? That's not good, Summers. That's the opposite of good."

"It's just a working theory right now...all we know for sure is that the Marauders and the Purifiers tore that town and each other apart. And now the baby is missing." Cyclops turned to the everyone else behind him, "My gut tells me Sinister is the safest bet for winner of that fight. But we need to cover all angles...that's why I wanted Rictor here, too."

Rictor was confused at that, since he no longer had any of his powers, and the X-Men tended to go into some pretty hot situations, "What do you want me to do?"

Cyclops paused and breathed for a bit in nervousness, "Something you're not going to want to do..."

"Oh, I'm liking the sound of this already..." He sarcastically/uncomfortably replied.

Cyclops was going to say, but Layla beat him to it, "He wants you to infiltrate the Purifiers."

Cyclops looked back at Layla looking rather miffed that age figured it out before the others did, and having it come from someone else wouldn't sit to well with them, "Hey...I can talk for myself, you know."

Layla brushed it off and kept on talking like an actual adult with experience that didn't match her age, "Sorry." She was since she did do it pretty often with the others in X-Factor, "But, you're right. It makes sense. The Purifiers' public persona with the majority of their followers, means a frontal assault would be a nightmare. But Rictor's not a mutant anymore, so he could maybe sneak in."

Rictor just put a hand up to his chin in thought of the outrageously stupid sounding, and yet very smart job, "You want to put me undercover with those, twisted mutant-haters? The people who probably killed every child in that town?" It didn't sit well with him...

"Yes, is that going to be a problem?"

"What's Jamie's job, then? Going to the Savage Land to have lunch with Sauron?" He sarcastically remarked.

Cyclops glanced at Naruto, since he was going to be partnered up with him, "Do you want to tell him, Naruto?"

"We're gonna go see Forge."

Layla looked curiously up at Naruto, "Who's Forge?"

"I'll tell you, if you tell me what the Savage Land is."

"I don't know what that is either."

"...well you're no fun."

"I'm plenty of fun. Just stick around for a while."

Jamie just rubbed his temples in irritation, "I got to look forward to this, great..."

* * *

-Beast's Lab-

* * *

"...just thought enough time had passed...that I'd proven...I don't know something..." Professor X had been in a recent discussion/argument with Cyclops on why he wasn't told something's recently concerning how they were handling the incident with Cooperstown and the search-and-rescue of the new mutant baby. He had come to help Hank get Cerebra back online and was currently just talking with his student on how the deteriorating relationship he was having with Cyclops, though...

"This gets stranger and stranger..."

"I agree."

Beast looked up from his current work on a Purifier weapon that they had managed to snatch back in Alaska, "No, I'm sorry, I mean this blaster the Purifiers were carrying...I thought it would be more future-tech they salvaged from Nimrod...which, I'm assuming, is how they knew about the child's birth before Cerebra did." He took the analyzing headgear that he was using, off and took the weapon sways to get a different look at it, "But this weapon...it's not futuristic in design at all. In fact, it looks kind of familiar. Which, as I said...is strange...I need to look through my Purifier files again."

The Professor nodded in assurance, "I'm sure Scott will get to the bottom of it."

Beast looked back his mentor solemnly a bit, "He will Charles...you trained him well. Take pride in that, and let him lead...I don't know what else to tell you."

The Professor walked back towards Cerebra some work and thinking to himself, "I'm going to check the rerouting..."

The Professor walked down the halls in silence and watched as the student she had trained grow up so fast in his eyes. At first he was leading them to a better future and he one day would pass the torch on to the next generation, walking past the meeting with X-Factor and continued on with his head down in thought. Time flies by so quickly when one teaches, and when one has taught so much of what they know to their students, and then one must wonder...are they truly needed anymore, even in times such as these? His thoughts brought him back to Cerebra where he had first begun to search for his students and the future that he dreamt of...

Cyclops had finished up with the mission briefing and everyone knew what to do, he received info from Naruto via his Shadow Clone with the Assault Team, and had more info to go on. He had sent in one of his colleagues to go undercover with religious zealots hell bent on their destruction and he sent three others to get answers for what decision to make when they finally got the baby back into their hands, though he couldn't help but feel something off.

The students were already itching to get into the fight, and he'd make sure they got it since it meant to them that they weren't the last generation of mutants on the planet. But the man in the cloak that Emma saw, he killed Blockbuster and many of the Purifiers singlehandedly, and so far nothing was being heard about him nor was he even around prior to the incident tonight, something was hiding under their noses, and it scared him.

* * *

-Elsewhere; In the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean-

* * *

Xorn and Magus stood quite literally, in the air over the dark depths of the ocean under the moon light. Magus took of his Akatsuki cloak and handed it to Xorn and dropped from whatever was holding them there, into the ocean.

He sunk down into the depths where light was almost nonexistent where the animals themselves only had their naturally evolved abilities to see and sense things in the dark water. An octopus seemed to try and latch onto him, believing the technarch to be food, but he had a rather unique job at the moment, just as Shin did.

Magus took the octopus and stabbed the creature and watched as it wreathed in pain and screamed out, but its wounds began to convert into techno-organic substance and it began to spread across the sea bed, the other creatures soon came into contact with the substance and were converted just as the octopus.

"You/Self will become single. You/Self shall remain dormant until contact with word: Magus. I/Self take necessary function away from you/self functions and restrict you/self's movements. Await, and sleep for now."

Magus disconnected himself from his 'spawn' if one could call it that, and took a look at his work.

Various animals of the ocean and much of the sea bed was now covered/converted into his substance.

Magus was brought back up to the surface where Xorn still stood patiently in the air with his cloak. "So were you successful?"

"I was able to spread my spawn to other creatures and restricted its movements to this section, as per your orders."

"Good, once Bastion has returned, we will know all of his moves and we'll know when and if he gets wind of us." Xorn and Magus began to disappear in a swirl back to their hideout.

* * *

-The Institute; Outside the Sentinel Perimeter-

* * *

Shin appeared out of a swirl with a few canisters in his cloak, he counted at least three Sentinels standing guard over the building and Xorn had ensured that he wouldn't be detected by their sensors. "So, now we have the sleepers to take care of for the time being." He pulled out one of the canisters that Magus had given him and looked at it.

The liquid contained thousands of newly created Nano-Technarch/Sentinel Hybrid machines, as they would help provide a future soldier for their usage. He used a Transparency Jutsu to hide his actual appearance from the naked eye and his Akatsuki cloak was made with a special material that enabled him to be able to avoid mental, scent and life force signature invisible to the X-Men.

Shin leapt to and from each of the Sentinels and used up each of the canisters for each of the giant machines, and allowed the machines to work their way up to the cockpit. Magus had modified them to be immune to their onboard sensors so that they could infiltrate and do their job as programmed, and had used the last of the canisters. "Now, let's see...ah, good, they're all in working condition." He saw from his wrist computer that the machines now had their 'eyes' on the pilots and would wait for the order to strike at them, and cripple the X-Men a bit.

"Only a matter of time now, guess I can wait until then to see the results of the experiment. After all, a new soldier will be crafted from these conditions." He set himself up a ways from the mansion up on a hillside with a good view of the property. He even had some pizza that he pulled from a seal on his wrist, despite how humanity would die off and the superiors would inherit the planet, they did make some damn good food.

* * *

-New York, Chelsea; Purifier Church Base-

* * *

A few of the many Purifiers now on full alert in the country were checking their weapons and discussing their current situation.

"Alaska was only the first step. According to our leaders, the mutant baby is still out there. Worse, the X-Men appear to have of learned of the infant and are doubtlessly engaged in their own search operations."

One of the Purifiers in the church turned to their leader in a bit of worry, specifically of one person. "So what does that mean for us, Taylor? I mean now that the X-Men know, won't the Devil himself know too?"

"What if he tries to reclaim his spawn?"

"Exactly. It means that we have to be extremely vigilant from now on. We can't let them get the drop on us." Taylor suddenly looked heard a growling sound up above them in the rafters of the church.

"GRRR..."

"Wha...?"

"GRRRRRRR."

And what he saw in the darkness were two beady yellow eyes, bright and white sharp teeth, and the silhouette of a wolf's head. Before anyone could react with the already itchy trigger fingers, the canine figure leapt down from the rafters and grabbed onto Taylor with an iron vice grip.

"It's a mutant!" One of the men shouted out loud, with many of the others already getting their guns ready to bring it down.

The mutant was the spitting image of a werewolf but with human clothing. It brought Taylor close to its body to try and smother him, but he doing his damndest to get the fuck away. "Y'think?! Do something!"

The men pointed all of their guns right at the mutant and took the safeties off, but the mutant wasn't having any of it. They took Taylor out of the grip and held him out right in front of them, making him a human shield.

"Don't shoot! You'll hit me dammit!" Taylor was not in the most comfortable of places being in front of several gun barrels. And then he was in an even less comfortable place, getting throw across the room towards his men and hitting the floor hard.

"Get it! Get it!" Those that were able to get up first had started to open fire on the mutant werewolf tuning out of the radical church.

Taylor finally got up and pulled his pistol out, "Hurry up! It was spying on us! Go after it! Kill it!" He started shooting rounds like a Stormtrooper out of Star Wars, "I want its furry hide nailed to this door!"

All of the others started shooting very much like Taylor, and just like Taylor, they shot like Stormtroopers. "There! It's there!" They just couldn't aim worth a damn...

Though one random guy walking down the street in along coat and a beanie on acted like he had no care in the world that werewolf shaped mutant was running down the street towards him...yeah that's not conspicuous at all. Though one of the Purifiers yelled out to the guy warning him, "You! Hey you! Get out of the way! Get clear!"

Then the scene took a full 180 with the man pulling out a pistol and opening fire on the mutant in mid-air bringing it pain, "EEYARRHHHH!"

A pickup truck drove down the street towards the mutant, with the driver yelling out to them, "Wolfsbane get in!"

Though the Purifiers weren't having any of that, "It's wounded! Finish it off!"

Wolfsbane jumped into the back while holding onto her wounds, as soon as she got ahold of it the tailgate the truck drove off as fast as it could with the Puriifers trying to bring I down, "Don't let it get away, boys."

The man that had actually managed to shoot the mutant literally point blank came closer to the armed men, "Is that what I think it is?"

One of the men turned their attention towards him, "Sure was, my friend. A mutant."

"Feakin' things are ruining the city for the rest of us. You're one of Stryker's bunch, right? Been looking for you fellas."

"Yeah? What's your name, pal?" Hey a man with those words and actions would be good material in their group he thought.

"Joaquin. Joaquin Murrieta. Friends call me Jake." And now step one of Rictor's infiltration op was done, _'I really need to not get antsy on these bastards, even when they deserve it.'_ He thought to himself...

* * *

-Elsewhere-

* * *

Wolfsbane had taken not really bullets, but squibs instead to her gut and chest, courtesy of Rictor who had to fake being a mutant hater.

Her other teammate Siryn was the one at the drivers seat of the pickup, and pulled over to the side of the road to give them a breather and update the rest of the X-Men, "Okay. We lost them." Siryn double checked the mirrors and the area around them with no one in sight, she pulled out the comms piece and spoke into it, "Cyclops? Rictor's in. They totally bought it."

She smirked at their stupidity. If Wolfsbane really was sent to take them down, then they wouldn't be able to move, much less breath. Being trained by Wolverine was pretty much hell, but it paid off a lot in the end.

She had since dropped her werewolf transformation and was back to looking human. "Ach." She shook her shirt a bit to try and get it to dry a bit, "Stupid fake blood. I'll never get these stains out. And the squibs sting like a son of a..."

* * *

-The Institue-

* * *

_"Do you copy, Cyclops?"_

Cyclops was down in the basement of their HQ, on the phone with Siryn on the other end, "Loud and clear, Siryn. How's Wolfsbane?"

_"Complaining that the squibs hurt."_

"Bullets would have hurt more."

He was about to inform her on the next part of their plan, though it seemed that he had other things to take care of at the moment with an interruption from Rockslide and X-23.

Both of whom were in their X-Uniforms.

"Yo. Scott. Can we talk?"

* * *

-Dallas, Texas-

* * *

After traveling for a couple of days down to Texas, via bus and being dropped off, Naruto, Layla and Jamie finally arrived at Forge's place back down in Dallas.

"Wow, I figured after all the damage the pink death machine and we made, it'd take a lot longer to get this back to looking good." Naruto still couldn't wrap his head around on how fast tho gs got fixed so quickly around here, compared to back home.

Layla looked next to the now shortened Naruto who looked like he was twelve, "Well there is this company called Damage Control that does these sort of things for a living, you know." She had offered to share her 'Hello Kitty' umbrella with him since it was raining down on the way.

Hey. It was raining and she was offering, why should he not accept?

"So how exactly do you know this stuff? Is that your power?"

"Eh, kinda sorta. I don't know how it works but I just know stuff." She explained once again to the ninja who _still_ was wanting to know why she said _he_ changed everything.

Layla decided to switch the subject, "So what all else can you do?"

Naruto saw an opportunity to switch things around, "Stuff~."

Meanwhile Naruto and Layla were trying to outwit one another, Jamie was walling out in the rain without a hood on, so his head was drenched, and his head annoyed by the two's banter, 'I can't believe Scott stuck this kid with me. I mean having one of me with my power is enough, but if I gotta listen to this guy the whole time then I'll prolly end up killing myself...'

Oh..the irony...

"Guess we'll see what other _stuff_ you got up your sleeve in a bit, we're here."

They were right on the doorstep that Santo had kicked down back that day. The door opened with Forge in a lab apron, more than likely working on something and greeted them.

"Ah, Madrox. You're here. Good." Then he looked down to Layla and Naruto, "And who are...wait, weren't you a teenager?" He pointed towards Naruto who simply nodded who then preceded to turn back into his teenage self. "Quite the arsenal you've got."

"Yup."

"And I'm Layla Miller."

"She knows 'stuff'." Naruto put into quotations with his fingers.

"I find it funny that you still keep asking me how I do, and yet you just said I know stuff. Isn't that funny?" She smirked a bit.

Jamie on the other hand was getting a little impatient, "The banter between you two is hilarious an all, but..." Then looked to Forge, "...you want to step aside Forge? Let us in out of the..." Naruto and Layla just walked right through Forge, who was revealed to be a hologram, "...rain?"

Naruto looked down next to Layla walking beside him, "Is this some of the stuff you know?"

Layla was just nonchalant about the question, "He didn't have a shadow. Half the stuff I know comes from paying attention."

"Smartass..."

"Takes one to know one."

"Oh, I almost forgot. You're gonna marry a time travelling redhead."

"Wait! What?!"

The Forge hologram looked back towards Jamie, who was still in the rain, "You are one brave man."

"So they keep telling me." He just walked in to catch up with the two bantering some more.

Layla looked back to Jamie who was trying to air dry the rain off of his trench coat, "You could've shared the umbrella with us, you know."

He just looked down at her with a bit of annoyance, "Yeah, I'm not standing under a _Hello Kitty_ umbrella, ok? I've got an image to protect."

Naruto decided to play around with that, "And what image would that be?" He grinned at the PI.

"A lot of people who come to me for help, and so they won't laugh their asses off at me when they see me. Though I can't believe you decided to do it." He pointed a little questioning to the ninja.

He just shrugged, "Hey, she offered and I wasn't gonna say no with this damn weather out 'n' about." Then he turned his attention back down to Layla...who still hadn't clarified what the hell she just said to him. "And what the hell do you mean by that marrying crap?"

"I just know it. That's all." She was grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

She was just having too much fun right now.

_**'Well, I think we all know so far who that could be."**_ Kurama decided to join in on it.

Hell, it was too fun not to ignore the opportunity to torment his host.

_"Fuck off!"_

_**"Heheheh..."**_

They made their way to the sounds of Forge working on whatever thing he was doing now, since his mutant power was to build whatever he imagined, he had a lot of things he could do, though this one took up a massive portion of the room. The outside was circular with a center platform that had four rows connecting the core and the outer rim together. Forge was currently welding the last bits of the machine together for the job Cyclops asked of him. "Welcome, Madrox, Layla, Naruto. You're dripping on my floor."

"'Fraid there's not much I can do about that..."

"I'm on it."

"Hunnh?!"

All of a sudden a hollow rectangular object dropped down to the floor and heat began to emit from it, and it slowly but surely began to dry them off.

Jamie was actually pretty impressed, "Wow. And here I thought all your inventions were, y'know...weapons."

"Now you know differently." Forge took his work gloves off and walks doff the platform towards computer with many wires and cable hooking into the machine, "Oh, that daunting-looking device in the corner is a coffeemaker. Pour yourselves some if you're so inclined. How much did Scott tell ya'll?"

They simply shook their heads in 'No' manner, "Not a ton. Mostly that you had a little gadget designed for gathering info."

"Yes, well...this is it."

Jamie and Naruto were pouring themselves some coffee, while Layla was watching Forge punch up info on the screen, "So, what is it?"

"Time machine."

Naruto had several shots of espresso in his coffee with Jamie giving him a questioning look as to whether or not that was healthy, "Ah, one of those doohickeys. Is it safe?" Then he turned his attention back to Jaime, "And yes, I can take it all with my blast furnace metabolism."

Jamie sighed a bit in relief, "Oh, good. For a moment there I thought that I was gonna have to deal with you going off the walls every literal five seconds."

That was something he absolutely could not deal with. Otherwise he'd have to kill the kid just from being to damn hyperactive and twitchy, hence blowing away any possible way of his investigation.

Forge decided to clarify the matter on the machine, "Yes it's safe since I built it after all, though it's not quite like the one that you destroyed inside Nimrod. To be more accurate, its sort of a GPS for time &amp; space. I call it a Chronal Tracer. Next one'll be more compact, but it works."

Jaime hummed up in a possible, but funny answer to that, "I've got an idea. Make it a Delorean."

"Ya know that was a pretty awesome flick." Naruto chimed in.

Forge took his goggles off and rubbed the back of his head.

Why didn't he think of that?

"Funny. Here's the thing: Time branches off into infinite directions. But after M-Day, all branches involving mutants...well...flatlined, for lack of a better word." He turned back to the console and finished up the work for the job, "I searched countless futures for signs of mutants. Came up with squat. But since the birth of the missing child, three branches have spiked. It bears investigation." He put emphasis on the word three like it was both incredibly astounding, but also very suspicious.

"And that's where I come in, what with me being an investigator and all." Jamie said taking a sip from his coffee.

The gears started to crank in Naruto's head now, "So that's why you want us to go and see what's up with this time stuff."

Jamie finished up what Naruto was getting at, "So we're gonna send Dupes of mine into the three time lines, have them poke around, and then com back with the information?"

Forge nodded, "That's more or less the plan."

"Oh, no biggie then." Naruto formed the T sign for his signature Jutsu "Shadow Clone Jutsu." Then three puffs of smoke came up in the room and in their place were three more Naruto's.

Now it made sense in his mind why Cyclops stuck this kid with him, "So that's why Scott had you sent with me. Well, hopefully it'll be a benefit since lately my Dupes aren't always predictable. They don't always do what I want them to."

Forge just gave him a look that said to at least try. And with Jaime giving in, "I'll do my best."

He stomped his foot three times and three of his Dupes appeared out of nowhere. Jamie crossed his arms and change into his Boss/PI persona, "Ok. What've we got, boys?"

Each of the Dupes sound off, one after the other.

"I do what must be done for the greater good of mutantkind." The first one said in a British like manner.

"I'm pretty interested in the future that I got, sounds like it'll be some work but it could be fun." The second one said in a scientific manner.

"I'm just a guy with a job to do. We can stand around and discuss it, or we can get to work." The third one said in a no nonsense manner.

The original nodded his head in acceptance of the answers he got, "I think we've got our men."

Naruto looked to his clones, and got a simultaneous salute from all three of them.

"All set guys?"

"You got it Boss!"

Forge was more than pleased, "Excellent. Let's get this rolling. First volunteers on the platform, please."

The British Jamie and NaruClone #1 stepped up, with the NaruClone now looking annoyed that he got this guy.

Forge began the countdown, "Ignition in three...two..one.."

"'Tis a far, far better thing I do now, than I have ever..."

"One of you guys swap with me!" The NaruClone shouted out in desperation. But it was too late, a purplish, yellowish vortex consumed the two and shocked them away to the first future.

The third Jamie Dupe was glad, "Oh, thank God he's gone."

Naruto did have some pity for the clone, but Hein the end was gonna get the memories back when it popped, well if it did. "Yeah, and I'm the one that's gonna be dealing with it..." Naruto's commlink that Cyclops had given to him was going off and he answered it, "Yo, Slim. What's up?...uhuh, alrighty then, I'll be there in a flash. Yeah, I gotta head back to the school. Got a mission and all that wonderful stuff."

Layla simply waved bye to him, "See ya."

Naruto teleported back to his room in the school as the second set of clones were sent into the timestream. And now it came down to the last pair, though Layla had gotten herself some distance away from the others as the machine cranked up, "Ignition in three...two...one...launch!" Just as the vortex began once more, Layla ran up on the platform towards Jamie and held onto him as hard as she could, "Whoa! Layla! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Stuff." It seemed that the stuff would also get her killed too.

Naruto tried to pry her away but he was too late before the vortex swallowed them whole, and the three of them vanished into the future.

The real Jaime was now scared shitless for her life, "LAYLA! Reverse it! Reverse it!"

Forge on the other hand was shocked, but he kept his cool unlike Jamie, "I can't! The three of them are one-way trips!"

Jamie now looked pissed as he looked back to Forge, "One way?! How the hell are our Dupes supposed to get back?"

"They're not. When each of them vanished, a message was psionically transferred into their brain cells. Once they arrive, they'll just know..."

"Know what?!"

"That as soon as they've gathered the intel, they should kill themselves. Then the knowledge will be transferred directly to your minds, within seconds."

Jamie was shocked at the explanation. Layla now had no way back to their time, "What?" He grabbed Forge by the shirt and had a fist cocked back ready to lay him on the floor in an instant.

"Hey!"

"You conniving manipulative...! You condemned Layla to..."

Forge swatted his arm away, "I didn't 'condem' her to anything! She wasn't _supposed _to go along!"

"You son of a..." Jamie was going to finish the insult, but something in the future, both now and wherever the hell one of his Dupes went, had other ideas in mind. He began to grip his head in pain and he suddenly dropped to the floor and had one hell of a seizure, shocking the scientist present in front of him.

"Madrox? Madrox! Jamie!" Forge tried to snap him out of whatever funk he was in, but it was all for naught.

* * *

-Ricotor; Purifier Base-

* * *

Meanwhile Jaime was exploring the future and going into a coma in the process, Rictor was able to talk his way into joining the Purifiers but he had to go through something to prove he was who he said he was.

"Please excuse our security measures, Jake. If you wouldn't mind looking this way..."

This was not what he had in mind, "Hey! What the hell is that?!"

"Please stay where you are, Jake." Taylor the man leading this branch was the one conducting a scan of sorts on Rictor and was quite calm about it, with two others armed with M4's next to him.

"What kind of stupid..." That's when Taylor brought up his pistol and pointed it towards Rictor's head and the gun primed to fire, "I said...stay where you are. Please." Taylor held his pistol with a calm attitude and was only watching the scan results and it came with a ping to the end of it.

Taylor looked back to Ricotor and smiled, "Excellent. The Mutants can be insidious, Jake. Might fry to get one of their own in here as a spy."

Oh, how the joke was on him.

"But this indicates that your DNA is Human. You have no powers." Taylor holstered his pistol back on his thigh and clipped back into place.

Now Rictor got through security and needed to get to work, _'Should be pretty easy to get these guys talking now.'_

"Pretty high tech. You guys make it?"

Taylor just shook his head and had a small smirk in place, "Actually, we developed it courtesy of an 'acquisition'. Our resources are far more impressive than you can imagine." He showed the next thing off to the newbie's and it the faces they had were priceless.

Deciding to play the skeptic, "Yeah? Well, I can imagine a lot..."

Taylor turned around and pulled on a lever, disguised as a wall-mounted torch, and the wall...well..."What th...? Is that wall moving?" Rictor never thought that this was in their capability. Granted that the chrich was at least eight to ten stories tall, and they could hide a lot of gear here, but this was something else.

"Yes, it is, Jake. Come now.." He turned around to see the look that he saw on everyone's faces that joined recently, and he savored it for a good while. "...you didn't seriously think that our entire operation was limited to this one church, did you? And here's the kicker: This is one of our smaller bases. Wait until you see Washington. It'll blow you away."

The look on Rictors face was filled with surprise and shock, but if Taylor paied attention and actually knew the truth, then he would also see fear and worry plastered on his face...

_'Yeah, and probably every Mutant left on the damn planet! Scott's got to know about this!'_

* * *

_**And done! This took me sometime as I wanted to do some more detailing on the arc outline for Messiah CompleX.**_

_**Now with this story along with the other two, Life Within Death and Star Wars: Requiem, and quite possibly two more on the way depending on y'all's opinions and support. I will be forced to cut back on the chapter length due to so many fucking people demanding that I update faster. So for this story, I will be reducing the chapter size from two issues per chapter to one issue per chapter. I have a life, work, college, gaming, other stories, etc. going on in my life, so I can't constantly devote all of my free time to fan fiction, but I'm not gonna give up on these stories unless I am ABSOLUTELY forced to do so.**_

_**Now just to keep you guys interested in this story I'm gonna do another "Of Things to Come..." For future previews into the arcs further down the line, but without major spoilers. Now concerning the actions of the villains, namely the new Akatsuki led by Xorn, when I get further down the line in this story I will do a spinoff of it that tells the story from their perspective A Long Way from Home: Akatsuki, and that one will be written around this one so it won't be confusing.**_

_**Also, for those that are interested in knowing who won the pairing poll for this story, it was SPOILER ALERT! Lil' Jean Grey from the All-New X-Men series, so expect her to show up after Avengers vs. X-Men.**_

_**So please continue read, review, favorite and follow my stories, and let me know what you have liked and disliked about the chapter's as you review them as they help me to better the story as I go. Enjoy and see ya'll at the next update :)**_

* * *

-Of Things to Come…-

* * *

After all the crap they just went through and the funeral just a few hours ago, Naruto knew that she needed someone with her, and that she needed a family now more than ever.

He had both a box and some papers in hand with him, as he walked down to the edge of the island where she was alone.

He had given her something that he hoped would help her grow up later, and now he had something that he thought she would like. With the papers, he had talked with her about it after she came from her coma, and she was in agreement that perhaps it was best this way for her daughter when she came back, but that didn't mean she didn't want to see her at all.

But ultimately it would come down to her choice.

He looked at her to see that she was reading the book he gave her when they met in the future, it looked worn and torn after the years of being in a post-apocalyptic world and she had done her best to tale care of it.

To her, it was a birthday gift that she would treasure for as long as she lived.

"Hey."

Hope looked up to Naruto for a split second, but then she turned back to her book. "Hey." She responded back with a neutral tone.

Naruto sat down next to her, and pulled the box and papers out onto his lap. He made some ice cream with the Yin-Yang Style that he and Jiraiya always ate when they had the time, "Hope. You can't not talk about it. Believe me, it hurts more when you don't talk...I know how it feels to lose someone...more than you know..."

Hope had some tears already building up, instead of trying to tall about how she lost her whole world, she directed it at the papers she glanced at momentarily. "What're those for?"

Naruto took the papers and handed them over to Hope, who looked at them and soon tiny tears started to drop on the papers. "Is this...?"

"Yup."

"And then that'd make me..."

"If you want. It's all up to you. I'm eighteen, so I am legally an adult now." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes, as she looked at him with both sadness and happiness. "If you want, I could adopt you as my little sister."

* * *

"So...a freaky Sharingan user, and now a dude in a mask. This new Akatsuki isn't all that different from the last one." Naruto stared down the man in the black visored mask in the Akatsuki cloak. Hope was next to him in a dress that she actually picked out to make herself seem more girly for the night but now with the assault on the museum and this guy, the night out was ruined.

From he could tell, the masked man in front of him was in a whole 'nother league compared to all the other enemies that he had fought here in this world.

"Hope. I want you to go back and help wherever else you can. And make sure no one else gets near. I won't be able to guarantee saftey from this fight." Naruto flared his chakra in anticipation for a real fight that he hadn't been able to have since home. And odds are, he wouldn't walk away without my broken limbs as this man flared his chakra to match his own.

* * *

"Ya know...being a teacher ain't half bad." Naruto was laying back in his chair that he had been given for his new office as a Councilor at the newly rebuilt school, and of course he had an officemate.

"Yeah, I'll need you to remind me every now and then, that lobotomizing kids is a bad thing." Rachel was making herself some coffee to get going in the morning before classes started.

"What the hell happened this time? Quire?"

"Yup, yesterday he tried to incite _another_ riot over the 'tyrannical regime of the toasted nuggets of lunch'."

"How'd that one turn out? I think this makes it what, riot number eight or nine since school started?"

"Ten actually. Pretty much all of the students started throwing food at him, well save for a few like Glob and Julian, and jeering him on. Then I stepped in and everyone pointed at him as the main blame."

Naruto thought on that for a split second, "It may not be too bad to lobotomize him a bit." He brought his fingers together to illustrate the whole 'just a smidge' thing.

Rachel smirked a bit, knowing that he too agreed he was a lot of trouble, "Very tempting...any ideas on how to bring him down a peg or two?"

"Heheheheheh...I got a few ideas." The school would be turned into a war zone soon from these two going at one another.


End file.
